---
title: Fond as they all were of one another, the two eldest could not help… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Fond as they all were of one another, the two eldest could not help being glad to think that their dogs certainly had a better chance. Who acts: Princes, Fond, dogs. 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 76

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Fond as they all were of one another, the two eldest could not help being glad to think that their dogs certainly had a better chance.

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**Who acts:** Princes, Fond, dogs · **What happens:** be, not help, think, have · **To what, where:** better chance · **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 (Princes, Fond, dogs), 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:pg503:23:76
# text = Fond as they all were of one another, the two eldest could not help being glad to think that their dogs certainly had a better chance.
1	Fond	fond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	1	appos	_	_
8	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	1	conj	_	_
12	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
16	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	cop	_	_
17	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	amod	_	_
27	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Princes *= prince* |  |  |  |  | as one | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **help** | could | Fond |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | glad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | past | Princes's dogs | a better chance |  |  |  | certainly *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=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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