--- title: The King himself, old as he was, could not help watching her, and te… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The King himself, old as he was, could not help watching her, and telling the Queen softly that it was a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature. Who acts: King, commonly. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, with its dep --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/54/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/) / 54 # The Blue Fairy Book, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, sentence 54 The King himself, old as he was, could not help watching her, and telling the Queen softly that it was a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature. **Who acts:** King, commonly · **What happens:** be, not help, watch, tell, see · **To what, where:** silence, Queen, long time · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, commonly), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:11:54 # text = The King himself, old as he was, could not help watching her, and telling the Queen softly that it was a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 King King PROPN NNP Number=Sing 12 nsubj _ _ 3 himself himself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 2 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ _ 5 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 amod _ _ 6 as as SCONJ IN _ 8 mark _ _ 7 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 8 was be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 10 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 12 aux _ _ 11 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 12 advmod _ _ 12 help help VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 13 watching watch VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 12 xcomp _ _ 14 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 13 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 17 telling tell VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 12 advcl _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 Queen Queen PROPN NNP Number=Sing 17 obj _ _ 20 softly softly ADV RB _ 17 advmod _ _ 21 that that SCONJ IN _ 26 mark _ _ 22 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 23 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 cop _ _ 24 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 25 long long ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ _ 26 time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obl:unmarked _ _ 27 since since SCONJ IN _ 30 mark _ _ 28 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 29 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 aux _ _ 30 seen see VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 17 ccomp _ _ 31 so so ADV RB _ 32 advmod _ _ 32 beautiful beautiful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 xcomp _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 34 cc _ _ 34 lovely lovely ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 conj _ _ 35 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 creature creature NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 37 . . PUNCT . _ 12 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | past | King | | | | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **not** **help** | could | the King King | | | | | | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 3 | **watch** *not said to happen* | gerund | the King King *not said here* | silence | | | | | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme | | 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the King King *not said here* | | the Queen | | | softly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent queen=Recipient clause=Topic | | 5 | **is a** | past | commonly | a long time | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **see** | past · perfect | King | | | | | beautiful *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/53/) - next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/55/) - ↑ back to [Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/)