---
title: And they asked the boy to be their king, but he said no, he must tak… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And they asked the boy to be their king, but he said no, he must take his mother home to her father’s house. Who acts: peoples, king. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 121

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And they asked the boy to be their king, but he said no, he must take his mother home to her father’s house.

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**Who acts:** peoples, king · **What happens:** ask, be, say, take · **To what, where:** boy, king, mother, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (peoples, king), 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:pg503:27:121
# text = And they asked the boy to be their king, but he said no, he must take his mother home to her father’s house.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	18	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	home	home	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | peoples *= people* |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | peoples *= people* *not said here* | peoples's king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | must | king | king's mother |  | mother's father's house |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent mother=Theme to house=Destination |

<!-- .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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