---
title: “I thank you, beautiful Cat,” said the Prince; “but what good will i… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I thank you, beautiful Cat,” said the Prince; “but what good will it do me to get back if I have not a dog to take to my father?” Who acts: Prince, country. 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 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I thank you, beautiful Cat,” said the Prince; “but what good will it do me to get back if I have not a dog to take to my father?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, country · **What happens:** thank, say, do, get back, have, take · **To what, where:** beautiful Cat, you, Prince, dog · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Prince, country), 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:pg503:23:63
# text = “I thank you, beautiful Cat,” said the Prince; “but what good will it do me to get back if I have not a dog to take to my father?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thank	thank	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thank** *speech: thank* *in a quote* | present | the Prince *= prince* | beautiful Cat | you |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | future | country |  | the Prince *= prince* |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **get back** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | country *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | the Prince *= prince* | a dog |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Patient |
| 6 | **take** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Prince *= prince* *not said here* | a dog *not said here* |  |  |  | to my father *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to father=Result |

<!-- .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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