---
title: They went and told the King about him, and said what a weighty and u… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They went and told the King about him, and said what a weighty and useful man he’d be in time of war, and that it would be well to secure him at any price. Who acts: people, weighty man, man, war. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They went and told the King about him, and said what a weighty and useful man he’d be in time of war, and that it would be well to secure him at any price.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, weighty man, man, war · **What happens:** go, tell, say, have, be, secure · **To what, where:** King, weighty man, man, price · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, weighty man, man, war), 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:pg503:42:69
# text = They went and told the King about him, and said what a weighty and useful man he’d be in time of war, and that it would be well to secure him at any price.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	17	det	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	weighty	weighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	useful	useful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’d	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advcl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	secure	secure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	37	det	_	_
37	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | people *not said here* |  | the King |  |  | about hero | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent king=Recipient about he=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | what weighty man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past | man | what weighty man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | infinitive | what weighty man *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | would | war |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **secure** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | man |  | any price |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent he=Theme at price=Asset |

<!-- .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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