---
title: The guide was so confounded that he knew not what answer to make, an… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The guide was so confounded that he knew not what answer to make, and when they returned he was at once beheaded for having failed. Who acts: five, Thieves. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 84

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The guide was so confounded that he knew not what answer to make, and when they returned he was at once beheaded for having failed.

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**Who acts:** five, Thieves · **What happens:** confound, not know, make, return, behead, have · **To what, where:** guide, five

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (five, Thieves), 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:pg503:34:84
# text = The guide was so confounded that he knew not what answer to make, and when they returned he was at once beheaded for having failed.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	guide	guide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	confounded	confound	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
11	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	23	obl	_	_
23	beheaded	behead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	parataxis	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
26	failed	fail	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confound** | past · passive |  | the guide |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past | five |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | five *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 4 | **return** | past | Thieves *= thief* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **behead** | past · passive |  | five |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 6 | **have** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **fail** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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