---
title: What is the good of my being ruler of a great kingdom if I am not ev… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What is the good of my being ruler of a great kingdom if I am not even allowed to beat my own dog?” Who acts: I. 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 41

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What is the good of my being ruler of a great kingdom if I am not even allowed to beat my own dog?”

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, not allow, beat · **To what, where:** I, own dog

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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 (I), 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:pg503:39:41
# text = What is the good of my being ruler of a great kingdom if I am not even allowed to beat my own dog?”
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	obl	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
8	ruler	ruler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
17	even	even	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | of my ruler; of a great kingdom | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **allow** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **beat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | my own dog |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location dog=Theme |

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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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