---
title: The king saw it was useless to hold out, and he took the white flag… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The king saw it was useless to hold out, and he took the white flag of truce in one hand, and the real table in the other, and set out to look for Jack. Who acts: king, it. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The king saw it was useless to hold out, and he took the white flag of truce in one hand, and the real table in the other, and set out to look for Jack.

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**Who acts:** king, it · **What happens:** see, be, hold out, take, set out, look · **To what, where:** real table, white flag, one hand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3027:20:86
# text = The king saw it was useless to hold out, and he took the white flag of truce in one hand, and the real table in the other, and set out to look for Jack.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	flag	flag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	truce	truce	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the king | the real table in the other |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **hold out** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | past | king | the white flag of truce |  | one hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent flag=Value in hand=Location |
| 5 | **set out** | infinitive | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **look** | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Jack | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for jack=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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