---
title: At night, when the young King was asleep, his wife had to pull the c… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At night, when the young King was asleep, his wife had to pull the clothes off him, and pour the pail full of little gudgeons over him, so that the little fish swam all about him. Who acts: young King, wife, little fish. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 185

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At night, when the young King was asleep, his wife had to pull the clothes off him, and pour the pail full of little gudgeons over him, so that the little fish swam all about him.

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**Who acts:** young King, wife, little fish · **What happens:** be, have, pull, pour, swim · **To what, where:** clothes, pail

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young King, wife, little fish), 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:pg503:13:185
# text = At night, when the young King was asleep, his wife had to pull the clothes off him, and pour the pail full of little gudgeons over him, so that the little fish swam all about him.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	15	obj	_	_
18	off	off	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	pour	pour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	pail	pail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	gudgeons	gudgeon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	over	over	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	37	mark	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
38	all	all	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
39	about	about	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the young King |  |  |  | night | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | King's wife |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pull** | to-infinitive | King's wife *not said here* | the clothes |  |  |  | off King | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent clothes=Theme off he=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **pour** | infinitive | King's wife *not said here* | the pail |  |  |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pail=Patient |
| 5 | **swim** | past | the little fish |  |  |  |  | about King | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about he=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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