---
title: The King could not but be very sorry, for she was his mother; but he… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King could not but be very sorry, for she was his mother; but he soon comforted himself with his beautiful wife and his pretty children. Who acts: King, queen, Ogress. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, sentence 112

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The King could not but be very sorry, for she was his mother; but he soon comforted himself with his beautiful wife and his pretty children.

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**Who acts:** King, queen, Ogress · **What happens:** not be, be, comfort · **To what, where:** Ogress

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, queen, Ogress), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg503:10:112
# text = The King could not but be very sorry, for she was his mother; but he soon comforted himself with his beautiful wife and his pretty children.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
19	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
20	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | could | the King |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | queen |  |  |  |  | for Ogress's mother | tree rules |
| 3 | **comfort** | past | Ogress | Ogress |  |  |  | with Ogress's beautiful wife and Ogress's pretty children; soon *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus himself=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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