---
title: “My dear child,” said he, “you are of an age to take a husband, ther… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “My dear child,” said he, “you are of an age to take a husband, therefore I am thinking of marrying you to the son of my prime minister. Who acts: dear child, you. 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 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“My dear child,” said he, “you are of an age to take a husband, therefore I am thinking of marrying you to the son of my prime minister.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dear child, you · **What happens:** say, be, take, think, marry · **To what, where:** husband, you · **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 (dear child, you), 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:pg503:2:19
# text = “My dear child,” said he, “you are of an age to take a husband, therefore I am thinking of marrying you to the son of my prime minister.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
25	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	marrying	marry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	advcl	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	prime	prime	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | My dear child |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  | of a age |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | My dear child *not said here* |  | a husband |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument husband=Destination |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · progressive | My dear child *= child* |  |  |  |  | therefore *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **marry** *in a quote* | gerund | My dear child *= child* *not said here* | you |  |  |  | to the son of my prime minister | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent you=Patient to son=Co-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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