---
title: But whom should he meet in the very street of the town but his own m… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But whom should he meet in the very street of the town but his own mother, flying for her life from the wicked King, who now wished to kill her because he found that she would never marry him! Who acts: boy, wicked King, mother. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But whom should he meet in the very street of the town but his own mother, flying for her life from the wicked King, who now wished to kill her because he found that she would never marry him!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, wicked King, mother · **What happens:** meet, fly, wish, kill, find, not marry · **To what, where:** street, mother, boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, wicked King, mother), 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:pg503:27:112
# text = But whom should he meet in the very street of the town but his own mother, flying for her life from the wicked King, who now wished to kill her because he found that she would never marry him!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	obj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	advmod	_	_
29	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
38	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
40	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	ccomp	_	_
41	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | should | boy |  |  | the street of the town but boy's own mother |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mother's life; from the wicked King | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from king=Trajectory |
| 3 | **wish** | past | the wicked King |  |  |  | now |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the wicked King *not said here* | mother |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **marry** | would | mother | boy |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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