---
title: With his hand on his sword, to be prepared for whatever might happen… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: With his hand on his sword, to be prepared for whatever might happen, he entered a hall paved with lapis-lazuli, while two lovely voices sang: Who acts: two, whatever, two lovely voices. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With his hand on his sword, to be prepared for whatever might happen, he entered a hall paved with lapis-lazuli, while two lovely voices sang:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** two, whatever, two lovely voices · **What happens:** be, happen, enter, pave, sing · **To what, where:** hall

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, 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 (two, whatever, two lovely voices), 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:pg503:23:25
# text = With his hand on his sword, to be prepared for whatever might happen, he entered a hall paved with lapis-lazuli, while two lovely voices sang:
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	prepared	prepared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	paved	pave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	lapis	lapis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	lazuli	lazuli	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
28	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
30	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | to-infinitive | two *not said here* |  |  |  |  | prepared *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **happen** | might | whatever |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **enter** | past | two | a hall |  |  |  | with two's hand on two's sword | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hall=Destination |
| 4 | **pave** | participle |  | a hall *not said here* |  |  |  | with lapis lazuli | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with lazuli=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | two lovely voices |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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