---
title: So the people chose for king the man who had been kind to his mother… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the people chose for king the man who had been kind to his mother when first she was cast on the island in the great chest. Who acts: people, man. 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 122

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So the people chose for king the man who had been kind to his mother when first she was cast on the island in the great chest.

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**Who acts:** people, man · **What happens:** choose, be, cast · **To what, where:** mother, island

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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 (people, man), 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:pg503:27:122
# text = So the people chose for king the man who had been kind to his mother when first she was cast on the island in the great chest.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
12	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
17	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	20	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	cast	cast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** | past | the people |  |  |  |  | for king | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for king=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **is** | past · perfect | the man |  |  |  |  | to king's mother; kind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cast** | past · passive |  | mother |  | the island |  | in the great chest; first *property* | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme on island=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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