---
title: It was not long before I communicated to his Majesty the plan I form… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not long before I communicated to his Majesty the plan I formed for seizing the enemy’s whole fleet. Who acts: It, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/46/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Chapter IV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/46/) / 1

# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was not long before I communicated to his Majesty the plan I formed for seizing the enemy’s whole fleet.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, I · **What happens:** not be, communicate, form, seize · **To what, where:** plan, Majesty, whole fleet

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:46:1
# text = It was not long before I communicated to his Majesty the plan I formed for seizing the enemy’s whole fleet.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	communicated	communicate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	Majesty	Majesty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	formed	form	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	seizing	seize	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’s	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	fleet	fleet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **communicate** | past | I | the plan | his Majesty |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent plan=Topic to majesty=Recipient |
| 3 | **form** | past | I | the plan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location plan=Theme |
| 4 | **seize** | gerund | I *not said here* | the enemy's whole fleet |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fleet=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Chapter III, 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/45/49/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/46/2/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IV](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/46/)