---
title: “I am the son of the prime minister of a great nation, and yet see w… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I am the son of the prime minister of a great nation, and yet see what a degrading occupation I am reduced to.” Who acts: son. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, 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/pg503/2/87/)

<!-- 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 Bronze Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/) / 87

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I am the son of the prime minister of a great nation, and yet see what a degrading occupation I am reduced to.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** be, see, degrade, reduce · **To what, where:** son, degrading occupation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (son), 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:pg503:2:87
# text = “I am the son of the prime minister of a great nation, and yet see what a degrading occupation I am reduced to.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	prime	prime	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	obj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	degrading	degrade	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	amod	_	_
21	occupation	occupation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	reduced	reduce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the gardener's son *= son* | the son |  |  |  | of the prime minister of a great nation | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  | yet |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **degrade** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **reduce** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | a degrading occupation |  |  |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2 «NP V NP.patient NP.extent PP.initial\_state PP.result»: subject=Patient what=Extent |

<!-- .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 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/86/)
- next →: [sentence 88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/88/)
- ↑ back to [The Bronze Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/)