---
title: Then Trusty John answered: “I will never desert him, and will serve… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Trusty John answered: “I will never desert him, and will serve him faithfully, even though it should cost me my life.” Who acts: Trusty, peace. 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 6

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Then Trusty John answered: “I will never desert him, and will serve him faithfully, even though it should cost me my life.”

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**Who acts:** Trusty, peace · **What happens:** answer, not desert, serve, cost · **To what, where:** Trusty, life · **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, peace), 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:pg503:41:6
# text = Then Trusty John answered: “I will never desert him, and will serve him faithfully, even though it should cost me my life.”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	Trusty	Trusty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	desert	desert	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	serve	serve	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	even	even	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	cost	cost	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Trusty |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **desert** *in a quote* | future | Trusty | Trusty |  |  |  |  | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme he=Source |
| 3 | **serve** *in a quote* | future |  | Trusty |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute |
| 4 | **cost** *in a quote* | should | peace | my life | Trusty |  |  |  | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Theme i=Beneficiary life=Value |

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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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