---
title: “The honor of saving your life is to be mine,” interrupted Patypata,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “The honor of saving your life is to be mine,” interrupted Patypata, and, before they could prevent her, she had picked up a knife and cut her head off in an instant. Who acts: honor, monkey. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“The honor of saving your life is to be mine,” interrupted Patypata, and, before they could prevent her, she had picked up a knife and cut her head off in an instant.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** honor, monkey · **What happens:** save, be, interrupt, prevent, pick up, cut off · **To what, where:** life, little monkey, Patypata, head, instant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (honor, monkey), 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:pg503:30:61
# text = “The honor of saving your life is to be mine,” interrupted Patypata, and, before they could prevent her, she had picked up a knife and cut her head off in an instant.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	honor	honor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	saving	save	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	mine	my	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
14	interrupted	interrupt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	Patypata	Patypata	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	picked	pick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
28	up	up	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	off	off	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **save** *in a quote* | gerund | the honor *not said here* | your life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the honor | my little monkey *= monkey* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **interrupt** | past |  | Patypata |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **prevent** | could | monkey | Patypata |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer she=Theme |
| 5 | **pick up** | past · perfect · passive |  | Patypata |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **cut off** | past |  | Patypata's head |  | a instant |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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