---
title: I asked them to present my most humble respects to the Emperor their… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I asked them to present my most humble respects to the Emperor their master, whose royal person I resolved to attend before I returned to my own country. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 33

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I asked them to present my most humble respects to the Emperor their master, whose royal person I resolved to attend before I returned to my own country.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** ask, present, resolve, attend, return · **To what, where:** ambassadors, humble respects, Emperor, royal person

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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 (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:pg503:46:33
# text = I asked them to present my most humble respects to the Emperor their master, whose royal person I resolved to attend before I returned to my own country.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	present	present	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
7	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	8	advmod	_	_
8	humble	humble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	respects	respects	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	resolved	resolve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	ccomp	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | I |  | ambassadors *= ambassador* |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **present** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | my humble respects | the Emperor |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent respects=Theme to emperor=Recipient |
| 3 | **resolve** | past | I | ambassadors's master's royal person *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **attend** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **return** | past | I |  |  |  |  | to my own country *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to country=Result |

<!-- .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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