---
title: The better to behold him, I lay down on my side, so that my face was… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The better to behold him, I lay down on my side, so that my face was level with his, and he stood three yards off. Who acts: I, face, Emperor. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter I, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The better to behold him, I lay down on my side, so that my face was level with his, and he stood three yards off.

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**Who acts:** I, face, Emperor · **What happens:** behold, lay down, be, stand off · **To what, where:** Emperor, side

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, face, Emperor), 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:pg503:43:71
# text = The better to behold him, I lay down on my side, so that my face was level with his, and he stood three yards off.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	down	down	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	19	case	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	level	level	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	parataxis	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nsubj	_	_
27	yards	yards	PRON	PRP	Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	ccomp	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **behold** | to-infinitive |  | Emperor |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **lay down** | present | I |  |  | my side |  | down *property* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on side=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | past | my face |  |  |  |  | so level | tree rules |
| 4 | **stand off** | past | Emperor |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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