---
title: “Ah!” cried the merchant, “if I were cruel enough to buy my own life… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah!” cried the merchant, “if I were cruel enough to buy my own life at the expense of one of my children’s, what excuse could I invent to bring her here?” Who acts: merchant, excuse. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Ah!” cried the merchant, “if I were cruel enough to buy my own life at the expense of one of my children’s, what excuse could I invent to bring her here?”

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**Who acts:** merchant, excuse · **What happens:** cry, be, buy, invent, bring · **To what, where:** own life, expense, Beast · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, excuse), 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:pg503:14:66
# text = “Ah!” cried the merchant, “if I were cruel enough to buy my own life at the expense of one of my children’s, what excuse could I invent to bring her here?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
14	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	expense	expense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	obj	_	_
31	excuse	excuse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	invent	invent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	_
37	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | the merchant *= merchant* |  |  |  |  | cruel, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **buy** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the merchant *= merchant* *not said here* | my own life |  | the expense of one of my children |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent life=Theme at expense=Asset |
| 4 | **invent** *in a quote* | could | excuse | the expense of one of my children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **bring** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | excuse *not said here* |  | Beast | here |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument she=Destination |

<!-- .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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