---
title: My greatest fear was for my eyes, which I should have lost if I had… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: My greatest fear was for my eyes, which I should have lost if I had not suddenly thought of the pair of spectacles which had escaped the Emperor’s searchers. Who acts: greatest fear, I, My. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My greatest fear was for my eyes, which I should have lost if I had not suddenly thought of the pair of spectacles which had escaped the Emperor’s searchers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** greatest fear, I, My · **What happens:** be, lose, not think, escape, fear · **To what, where:** eyes, pair

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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 (greatest fear, I, My), 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:pg503:46:13
# text = My greatest fear was for my eyes, which I should have lost if I had not suddenly thought of the pair of spectacles which had escaped the Emperor’s searchers.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	spectacles	spectacle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	escaped	escape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’s	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	searchers	searcher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | My greatest fear |  |  |  |  | for my eyes | tree rules |
| 2 | **lose** | should · perfect · passive |  | my eyes |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **think** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | of the pair of spectacles; suddenly *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **escape** | past · perfect · passive |  | the pair of spectacles |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fear** |  | My |  |  |  |  |  | nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=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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