---
title: He began with compliments on my liberty, but he added that, save for… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He began with compliments on my liberty, but he added that, save for the present state of things at Court, perhaps I might not have obtained it so soon. Who acts: Reldresal, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter III, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He began with compliments on my liberty, but he added that, save for the present state of things at Court, perhaps I might not have obtained it so soon.

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**Who acts:** Reldresal, I · **What happens:** begin, add, save, not obtain · **To what, where:** liberty, Court, state

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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 (Reldresal, I), 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:pg503:45:40
# text = He began with compliments on my liberty, but he added that, save for the present state of things at Court, perhaps I might not have obtained it so soon.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	compliments	compliment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	liberty	liberty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	added	add	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Court	Court	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
29	obtained	obtain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Reldresal |  |  | my liberty |  | with compliments | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with compliment=Subeventuality |
| 2 | **add** *speech: assert* | past | Reldresal |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **save** | infinitive | Reldresal *not said here* |  |  | Court |  | for the present state of things | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent for state=Source |
| 4 | **not** **obtain** | might · perfect | I | state |  |  |  | perhaps, soon *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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