--- title: About a month afterward, Blue Beard told his wife that he was oblige… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: About a month afterward, Blue Beard told his wife that he was obliged to take a country journey for six weeks at least, about affairs of very great consequence, desiring her to divert herself in his absence, to send for her friends and acquaintances, to carry them into the country, if she pleased, a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/40/11/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Blue Beard](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/40/) / 11 # The Blue Fairy Book, Blue Beard, sentence 11 About a month afterward, Blue Beard told his wife that he was obliged to take a country journey for six weeks at least, about affairs of very great consequence, desiring her to divert herself in his absence, to send for her friends and acquaintances, to carry them into the country, if she pleased, and to make good cheer wherever she was. **Who acts:** Blue Beard, beard · **What happens:** tell, oblige, take, desire, divert, send · **To what, where:** wife, beard, country journey, least, marriage, absence · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Blue Beard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Blue Beard, beard), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:40:11 # text = About a month afterward, Blue Beard told his wife that he was obliged to take a country journey for six weeks at least, about affairs of very great consequence, desiring her to divert herself in his absence, to send for her friends and acquaintances, to carry them into the country, if she pleased, and to make good cheer wherever she was. 1 About about ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 2 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 month month NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obl:unmarked _ _ 4 afterward afterward ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 7 punct _ _ 6 Blue blue ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 Beard Beard PROPN NNP Number=Sing 8 nsubj _ _ 8 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 10 wife wife NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 iobj _ _ 11 that that SCONJ IN _ 14 mark _ _ 12 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 13 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 aux:pass _ _ 14 obliged oblige VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 8 ccomp _ _ 15 to to PART TO _ 16 mark _ _ 16 take take VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 xcomp _ _ 17 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 18 country country NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 compound _ _ 19 journey journey NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 obj _ _ 20 for for ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 six six NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 22 nummod _ _ 22 weeks week NOUN NNS Number=Plur 16 obl _ _ 23 at at ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 least least ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 16 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 26 about about ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 27 affairs affair NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 obl _ _ 28 of of ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 29 very very ADV RB _ 30 advmod _ _ 30 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 consequence consequence NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 33 desiring desire VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 8 advcl _ _ 34 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 obj _ _ 35 to to PART TO _ 36 mark _ _ 36 divert divert VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 33 xcomp _ _ 37 herself herself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 36 obj _ _ 38 in in ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 40 nmod:poss _ _ 40 absence absence NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 41 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 42 to to PART TO _ 43 mark _ _ 43 send send VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 36 conj _ _ 44 for for ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 45 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 46 nmod:poss _ _ 46 friends friend NOUN NNS Number=Plur 43 obl _ _ 47 and and CCONJ CC _ 48 cc _ _ 48 acquaintances acquaintance NOUN NNS Number=Plur 46 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 , , PUNCT , _ 51 punct _ _ 50 to to PART TO _ 51 mark _ _ 51 carry carry VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 43 parataxis _ _ 52 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 51 obj _ _ 53 into into ADP IN _ 55 case _ _ 54 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 55 det _ _ 55 country country NOUN NN Number=Sing 51 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 56 , , PUNCT , _ 59 punct _ _ 57 if if SCONJ IN _ 59 mark _ _ 58 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 59 nsubj _ _ 59 pleased pleased ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 51 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 60 , , PUNCT , _ 63 punct _ _ 61 and and CCONJ CC _ 63 cc _ _ 62 to to PART TO _ 63 mark _ _ 63 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 ccomp _ _ 64 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 65 amod _ _ 65 cheer cheer NOUN NN Number=Sing 63 obj _ _ 66 wherever wherever ADV WRB PronType=Int 63 ccomp _ _ 67 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 68 nsubj _ _ 68 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 66 cop _ SpaceAfter=No 69 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Blue Beard | | beard's wife | | month | about affairs of great consequence | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient clause=Topic | | 2 | **oblige** | past · passive | | beard | | | | | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result | | 3 | **take** | to-infinitive | | a country journey | | least | week | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent journey=Theme at least=Asset | | 4 | **desire** | gerund | Blue Beard *not said here* | marriage | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **divert** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Blue Beard *not said here* | marriage | | beard's absence | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus herself=Experiencer | | 6 | **send** | to-infinitive | Blue Beard *not said here* | | | | | for marriage's friends and acquaintances | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **carry** | to-infinitive | | wives *= wife* | | the country | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | | 8 | **make** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | | good cheer | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset cheer=Product | | 9 | **is** | past | | | | | | wherever *property* | tree rules | | 10 | **absent** | | beard | | | | | | nom absence «state transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/40/10/) - next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/40/12/) - ↑ back to [Blue Beard](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/40/)