---
title: “How are we to face our queen,” said the three mice “when by our fol… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “How are we to face our queen,” said the three mice “when by our folly we have lost the talisman and condemned our people to be utterly exterminated? Who acts: we, three mice. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 212

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“How are we to face our queen,” said the three mice “when by our folly we have lost the talisman and condemned our people to be utterly exterminated?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, three mice · **What happens:** be, say, lose, condemn, exterminate · **To what, where:** talisman, people · **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 (we, three mice), 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:pg503:2:212
# text = “How are we to face our queen,” said the three mice “when by our folly we have lost the talisman and condemned our people to be utterly exterminated?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	face	face	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	22	mark	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	talisman	talisman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	condemned	condemn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	utterly	utterly	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	exterminated	exterminate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  | face *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the three mice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **lose** *in a quote* | present · perfect | we | the talisman |  |  |  | by our folly | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talisman=Eventuality |
| 4 | **condemn** *in a quote* | past | we *not said here* | our people |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Theme |
| 5 | **exterminate** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | utterly *property* | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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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