---
title: When he heard all this he was perhaps sorry that he had sworn to bri… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he heard all this he was perhaps sorry that he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head, but he was determined to keep his oath. Who acts: boy. 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 28

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When he heard all this he was perhaps sorry that he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head, but he was determined to keep his oath.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** hear, be, swear, bring, keep · **To what, where:** this, Terrible Head, oath · **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 (boy), 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:pg503:27:28
# text = When he heard all this he was perhaps sorry that he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head, but he was determined to keep his oath.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	5	det:predet	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	sworn	swear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	Terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	Head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	determined	determined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	oath	oath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | boy | this |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | perhaps, sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **swear** | past · perfect | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **bring** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | the Terrible Head |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | determined *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **keep** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | boy's oath |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oath=Theme |

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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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