---
title: When I went to his Court he was only a little boy, but that is forty… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When I went to his Court he was only a little boy, but that is forty years ago, and I have been in this desolate place ever since. Who acts: I, father, that. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When I went to his Court he was only a little boy, but that is forty years ago, and I have been in this desolate place ever since.

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**Who acts:** I, father, that · **What happens:** go, be, desolate · **To what, where:** Court, little boy, desolate place

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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 (I, father, that), 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:pg503:3:81
# text = When I went to his Court he was only a little boy, but that is forty years ago, and I have been in this desolate place ever since.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	Court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
24	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
27	desolate	desolate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	compound	_	_
28	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
29	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	30	advmod	_	_
30	since	since	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | I |  |  | father's Court |  | since *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to court=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | father | a little boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  | year | ago *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **desolate** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | present · perfect | I |  |  | this desolate place |  |  | 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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