---
title: Then he spake: “Dear wife, we can restore him to life, but the price… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he spake: “Dear wife, we can restore him to life, but the price asked is our two little sons; we must sacrifice them.” Who acts: Dear wife, price, we. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Trusty John, sentence 115

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Then he spake: “Dear wife, we can restore him to life, but the price asked is our two little sons; we must sacrifice them.”

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**Who acts:** Dear wife, price, we · **What happens:** restore, ask, be, sacrifice · **To what, where:** king, life, two little sons, thoughts

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dear wife, price, we), 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:pg503:41:115
# text = Then he spake: “Dear wife, we can restore him to life, but the price asked is our two little sons; we must sacrifice them.”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spake	speak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	restore	restore	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	sacrifice	sacrifice	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **restore** *in a quote* | can | Dear wife | king | life |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Theme to life=Recipient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | past | the price *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the price | our two little sons |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sacrifice** *in a quote* | must | we | thoughts *= thought* |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent they=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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