---
title: Now Trusty John was his favorite servant, and was so called because… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Trusty John was his favorite servant, and was so called because all his life he had served him so faithfully. Who acts: Trusty. 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 3

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Now Trusty John was his favorite servant, and was so called because all his life he had served him so faithfully.

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**Who acts:** Trusty · **What happens:** be, call, serve · **To what, where:** favorite servant, king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Trusty), 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:pg503:41:3
# text = Now Trusty John was his favorite servant, and was so called because all his life he had served him so faithfully.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
2	Trusty	Trusty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	favorite	favorite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
13	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	16	case	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Trusty | Trusty's favorite servant |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | past · passive |  | Trusty's favorite servant *not said here* |  |  |  | because Trusty's life | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **serve** | past · perfect | Trusty | king |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute |

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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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