---
title: In saying this he was touching a weak point in his brother’s charact… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In saying this he was touching a weak point in his brother’s character; for the Prince’s fear of losing any of his power made him at once abandon his first idea of trying to be good, and resolve to try and frighten the shepherdess into consenting to marry him. Who acts: fear, brother, you, first ide
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In saying this he was touching a weak point in his brother’s character; for the Prince’s fear of losing any of his power made him at once abandon his first idea of trying to be good, and resolve to try and frighten the shepherdess into consenting to marry him.

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**Who acts:** fear, brother, you, first idea, Prince · **What happens:** say, touch, lose, make, abandon, try · **To what, where:** this, weak point, character, any, brother, first idea · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (fear, brother, you, first idea), 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:pg503:39:74
# text = In saying this he was touching a weak point in his brother’s character; for the Prince’s fear of losing any of his power made him at once abandon his first idea of trying to be good, and resolve to try and frighten the shepherdess into consenting to marry him.
1	In	in	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’s	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	losing	lose	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
23	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	31	obl	_	_
31	abandon	abandon	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	34	amod	_	_
34	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
36	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	acl	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
38	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	cop	_	_
39	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	resolve	resolve	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	xcomp	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	conj	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	shepherdess	shepherdess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	into	into	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
50	consenting	consent	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	46	advcl	_	_
51	to	to	PART	TO	_	52	mark	_	_
52	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	xcomp	_	_
53	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the Prince's fear *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** | past · progressive | brother | a weak point |  | brother's brother's character |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme point=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **lose** | gerund | the Prince's fear *not said here* | any |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Eventuality |
| 4 | **make** | past | the Prince's fear | brother |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset he=Product |
| 5 | **abandon** | imperative | you *not said here* | brother's first idea |  |  |  |  | vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme idea=Source |
| 6 | **try** | gerund | brother's first idea *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | brother's first idea *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **resolve** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **try** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 10 | **frighten** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the shepherdess |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus shepherdess=Experiencer |
| 11 | **consent** | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 12 | **marry** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | brother |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 13 | **fear** |  | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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