---
title: The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult, and… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult, and he left the Fairy, determined to grind the cat’s tail to powder rather than not tread on it at all. Who acts: King, this. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dep
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult, and he left the Fairy, determined to grind the cat’s tail to powder rather than not tread on it at all.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, this · **What happens:** say, not be, leave, determine, grind, powder · **To what, where:** king, Fairy, tail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, this), 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:pg503:3:6
# text = The King said to himself that this would not be very difficult, and he left the Fairy, determined to grind the cat’s tail to powder rather than not tread on it at all.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	determined	determine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	grind	grind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	powder	powder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
29	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	32	cc	_	_
30	than	than	ADP	IN	_	29	fixed	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	tread	tread	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the King |  | king |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **is** | would | this |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** | past | king | the Fairy |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fairy=Theme |
| 4 | **determine** | participle | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **grind** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | the cat's tail |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 6 | **powder** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **not** **tread** | infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  | tail |  | at all | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on it=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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