---
title: He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu, and do his utmost to destroy their fleet, which is now preparing to invade us. Who acts: express, fleet. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter III, sentence 32

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He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu, and do his utmost to destroy their fleet, which is now preparing to invade us.

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**Who acts:** express, fleet · **What happens:** be, do, destroy, prepare, invade · **To what, where:** ally, utmost, fleet, us

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (express, fleet), 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:pg503:45:32
# text = He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu, and do his utmost to destroy their fleet, which is now preparing to invade us.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	ally	ally	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	against	against	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	enemies	enemy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Blefuscu	Blefuscu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	utmost	utmost	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	fleet	fleet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
27	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	invade	invade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | shall | express | our ally |  |  |  | against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | infinitive |  | express's utmost |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent utmost=Eventuality |
| 3 | **destroy** | to-infinitive |  | horses's fleet |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fleet=Patient |
| 4 | **prepare** | present · progressive | horses's fleet |  |  |  | now |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute |
| 5 | **invade** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | horses's fleet *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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