---
title: The King was about to give this order, when the minister’s son, to s… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King was about to give this order, when the minister’s son, to save himself from such an indignity, admitted that the story was true. Who acts: King, indignity, story. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 135

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The King was about to give this order, when the minister’s son, to save himself from such an indignity, admitted that the story was true.

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**Who acts:** King, indignity, story · **What happens:** be, give, save, admit · **To what, where:** order, king, indignity · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, indignity, story), 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:pg503:2:135
# text = The King was about to give this order, when the minister’s son, to save himself from such an indignity, admitted that the story was true.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	22	det:predet	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	indignity	indignity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	admitted	admit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the King |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* | this order and the minister's son |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent order=Theme |
| 3 | **save** | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* | king |  | such indignity |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent himself=Theme from indignity=Source |
| 4 | **admit** *speech: other* | past | such indignity *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | the story |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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