---
title: “I am very hungry, but I shall not die of starvation before I get my… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I am very hungry, but I shall not die of starvation before I get my dinner; if I give my breakfast to this poor creature perhaps I may save her life.” Who acts: Darling. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 134

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“I am very hungry, but I shall not die of starvation before I get my dinner; if I give my breakfast to this poor creature perhaps I may save her life.”

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**Who acts:** Darling · **What happens:** be, not die, get, give, save · **To what, where:** dinner, breakfast, poor creature, life

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Darling), 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:pg503:39:134
# text = “I am very hungry, but I shall not die of starvation before I get my dinner; if I give my breakfast to this poor creature perhaps I may save her life.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	starvation	starvation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
14	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
27	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
29	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Darling |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **die** *in a quote* | shall | Darling |  |  |  |  | of starvation | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of starvation=Causer |
| 3 | **get** *in a quote* | present | Darling | my dinner |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dinner=Stimulus |
| 4 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | Darling | my breakfast | this poor creature |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent breakfast=Theme to creature=Recipient |
| 5 | **save** *in a quote* | may | Darling | creature's life |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |

<!-- .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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