---
title: When he approached the bed the King spake to him: “Most trusty John,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he approached the bed the King spake to him: “Most trusty John, I feel my end is drawing near, and I could face it without a care were it not for my son. Who acts: king, trusty John. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Trusty John, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he approached the bed the King spake to him: “Most trusty John, I feel my end is drawing near, and I could face it without a care were it not for my son.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, trusty John · **What happens:** approach, feel, draw, face, be · **To what, where:** bed, Trusty, end · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (king, trusty John), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:41:4
# text = When he approached the bed the King spake to him: “Most trusty John, I feel my end is drawing near, and I could face it without a care were it not for my son.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	spake	speak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	nsubj	_	_
14	trusty	trusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	feel	feel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	drawing	draw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
23	near	near	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	face	face	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	without	without	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | king | the bed | Trusty |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **feel** *in a quote* | present | king | my end |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent end=Theme |
| 3 | **draw** *in a quote* | present · progressive | trusty John |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **face** *in a quote* | could | king | end |  |  |  | without a care | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Destination |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* | past | trusty John *not said here* | end |  |  |  | for my son | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot it=Theme for son=Attribute |

<!-- .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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