---
title: But when the Captain of the Guard would have taken her tongue it tur… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when the Captain of the Guard would have taken her tongue it turned out to be quite black, so that would not have deceived the King either. Who acts: it, that. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Wonderful Sheep, part 1, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when the Captain of the Guard would have taken her tongue it turned out to be quite black, so that would not have deceived the King either.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, that · **What happens:** take, turn out, be, not deceive · **To what, where:** Captain, King

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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 (it, that), 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:pg503:30:62
# text = But when the Captain of the Guard would have taken her tongue it turned out to be quite black, so that would not have deceived the King either.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Captain	Captain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Guard	Guard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux	_	_
10	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
18	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux	_	_
26	deceived	deceive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	either	either	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | would · perfect · passive |  | the Captain of the Guard |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme tongue=Destination |
| 2 | **turn out** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | black *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **deceive** | would · perfect | that | the King |  |  |  | either *property* | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Patient |

<!-- .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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