---
title: “Your son has been the cause of a pretty misfortune,” she cried; “he… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Your son has been the cause of a pretty misfortune,” she cried; “he threw my husband downstairs so that he broke his leg. Who acts: son, wife, husband. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Your son has been the cause of a pretty misfortune,” she cried; “he threw my husband downstairs so that he broke his leg.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son, wife, husband · **What happens:** be, cry, throw, break · **To what, where:** cause, husband, leg · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (son, wife, husband), 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:pg503:13:36
# text = “Your son has been the cause of a pretty misfortune,” she cried; “he threw my husband downstairs so that he broke his leg.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	downstairs	downstairs	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
23	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	26	mark	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Your son | the cause |  |  |  | of a pretty misfortune | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **throw** *in a quote* | past | husband | my husband |  |  |  | downstairs *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent husband=Theme |
| 4 | **break** *in a quote* | past | husband | husband's leg |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer leg=Patient |

<!-- .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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