---
title: Yet, cowardly as he was, he had not quite the heart to kill the Prin… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Yet, cowardly as he was, he had not quite the heart to kill the Princess and her baby outright, but he had them put in a huge brass-bound chest and thrust out to sea, that they might either be drowned or starved, or perhaps come to a country where they would be out of his way. Who acts: child, baby.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yet, cowardly as he was, he had not quite the heart to kill the Princess and her baby outright, but he had them put in a huge brass-bound chest and thrust out to sea, that they might either be drowned or starved, or perhaps come to a country where they would be out of his way.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** child, baby · **What happens:** be, have, kill, put, drown, starve · **To what, where:** heart, Princess, huge bound chest, baby, country, way

<!-- .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 (child, baby), 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:pg503:27:9
# text = Yet, cowardly as he was, he had not quite the heart to kill the Princess and her baby outright, but he had them put in a huge brass-bound chest and thrust out to sea, that they might either be drowned or starved, or perhaps come to a country where they would be out of his way.
1	Yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	cowardly	cowardly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	advcl	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
11	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
21	outright	outright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
30	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
31	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	bound	bound	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	thrust	thrust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
37	out	out	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
41	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
42	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
44	either	either	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	46	advmod	_	_
45	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	aux:pass	_	_
46	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	parataxis	_	_
47	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	starved	starve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
50	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
51	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
52	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
53	to	to	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
56	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	63	advmod	_	_
57	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj	_	_
58	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	63	aux	_	_
59	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	63	cop	_	_
60	out	out	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
61	of	of	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
62	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nmod:poss	_	_
63	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | child | the heart |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Patient |
| 3 | **kill** | to-infinitive | child *not said here* | the Princess and Princess's baby |  |  |  | outright *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Theme |
| 4 | **put** | past · perfect |  |  |  | a huge bound chest and thrust |  | out *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in chest=Destination |
| 5 | **drown** | might · passive |  | baby |  |  |  | either *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **starve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  | a country |  | perhaps *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to country=Initial\_Location |
| 8 | **is** | would | baby |  |  | child's way |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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