--- title: Now the King had been very anxious to have a son, or at least a gran… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Now the King had been very anxious to have a son, or at least a grandson, to come after him, but he was told by a prophet whom he consulted that his own daughter’s son should kill him. Who acts: King, prophet, son. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its depen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/) / 2 # The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 2 Now the King had been very anxious to have a son, or at least a grandson, to come after him, but he was told by a prophet whom he consulted that his own daughter’s son should kill him. **Who acts:** King, prophet, son · **What happens:** be, have, come, tell, consult, kill · **To what, where:** son, king, prophet · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (King, prophet, son), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:27:2 # text = Now the King had been very anxious to have a son, or at least a grandson, to come after him, but he was told by a prophet whom he consulted that his own daughter’s son should kill him. 1 Now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 7 advmod _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 King King PROPN NNP Number=Sing 7 nsubj _ _ 4 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 aux _ _ 5 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 7 cop _ _ 6 very very ADV RB _ 7 advmod _ _ 7 anxious anxious ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 8 to to PART TO _ 9 mark _ _ 9 have have VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 7 advcl _ _ 10 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 13 or or CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 14 at at ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 15 least least ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 17 nmod _ _ 16 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 grandson grandson NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 appos _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 19 to to PART TO _ 20 mark _ _ 20 come come VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 conj _ _ 21 after after ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 22 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 24 but but CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 25 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 26 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 aux:pass _ _ 27 told tell VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 7 parataxis _ _ 28 by by ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 29 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 prophet prophet NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obl _ _ 31 whom whom PRON WP PronType=Rel 33 obj _ _ 32 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 33 consulted consult VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 acl:relcl _ _ 34 that that SCONJ IN _ 41 mark _ _ 35 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 37 nmod:poss _ _ 36 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 daughter daughter NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 38 ’s 's PART POS _ 37 case _ _ 39 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 nsubj _ _ 40 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 41 aux _ _ 41 kill kill VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 33 ccomp _ _ 42 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the King | | | | now | anxious *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **have** | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* | a son | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient | | 3 | **come** | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* | | | | after king | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive | a prophet | king | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient | | 5 | **consult** | past | king | a prophet | | | | | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent whom=Recipient clause=Topic | | 6 | **kill** | should | king's own daughter's son | king | | | | | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/1/) - next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/3/) - ↑ back to [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/)