---
title: His lordship’s face was full of trouble; and he asked me to hear him… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His lordship’s face was full of trouble; and he asked me to hear him with patience, in a matter that highly concerned my honor and my life. Who acts: face, Emperor, my. 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 38

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His lordship’s face was full of trouble; and he asked me to hear him with patience, in a matter that highly concerned my honor and my life.

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**Who acts:** face, Emperor, my · **What happens:** be, ask, hear, concern, honor · **To what, where:** me, Emperor, matter

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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 (face, Emperor, 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:pg503:46:38
# text = His lordship’s face was full of trouble; and he asked me to hear him with patience, in a matter that highly concerned my honor and my life.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	lordship	lordship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
24	highly	highly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	concerned	concern	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	honor	honor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Emperor's lordship's face |  |  |  |  | of trouble; full *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Emperor |  | me |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hear** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Emperor *not said here* | Emperor |  |  |  | with patience | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 4 | **concern** | past |  | a matter |  |  |  | highly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus that=Experiencer honor=Result |
| 5 | **honor** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom honor «communication 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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