---
title: “King’s son,” said the White Cat, “I beg you to spare me these compl… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “King’s son,” said the White Cat, “I beg you to spare me these compliments, for I am not used to them. Who acts: son. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 41

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“King’s son,” said the White Cat, “I beg you to spare me these compliments, for I am not used to them.

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** say, beg, spare, not use · **To what, where:** White Cat, you, son, cats · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (son), 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:pg503:23:41
# text = “King’s son,” said the White Cat, “I beg you to spare me these compliments, for I am not used to them.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	King	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	son	son	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	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	beg	beg	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	compliments	compliment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | King's son | the White Cat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* *in a quote* | present | King's son *= son* |  | you |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **spare** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | King's son *= son* *not said here* |  | King's son *= son* |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent i=Recipient compliment=Asset |
| 4 | **not** **use** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | King's son *= son* | cats *= cat* |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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