---
title: What kind of a thing is that, master?” said the Prince, making himse… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What kind of a thing is that, master?” said the Prince, making himself look as stupid as an ass; “I should like to see that.” Who acts: master, Prince, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/42/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Master-maid, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/) / 42

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master-maid, part 1, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What kind of a thing is that, master?” said the Prince, making himself look as stupid as an ass; “I should like to see that.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** master, Prince, I · **What happens:** be, make, look, like, see · **To what, where:** Prince, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, 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 (master, Prince, I), 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:pg503:17:42
# text = What kind of a thing is that, master?” said the Prince, making himself look as stupid as an ass; “I should like to see that.”
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | master |  |  |  |  | say *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** *in a quote* | gerund | master *not said here* | Prince |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** *in a quote* | infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **like** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/43/)
- ↑ back to [The Master-maid, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/)