---
title: And that, like a false traitor to his Most Serene Majesty, you excus… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And that, like a false traitor to his Most Serene Majesty, you excused yourself from the service on pretence of unwillingness to force the consciences and destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people. Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV, with its de
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 43

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And that, like a false traitor to his Most Serene Majesty, you excused yourself from the service on pretence of unwillingness to force the consciences and destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** excuse, force, destroy · **To what, where:** that, service, consciences, liberties

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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 (you), 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:pg503:46:43
# text = And that, like a false traitor to his Most Serene Majesty, you excused yourself from the service on pretence of unwillingness to force the consciences and destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	traitor	traitor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
10	Most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	amod	_	_
11	Serene	Serene	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	Majesty	Majesty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	excused	excuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	pretence	pretence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	unwillingness	unwillingness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	force	force	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	consciences	conscience	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	liberties	liberty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **excuse** | past | you | that |  | the service on pretence of unwillingness |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yourself=Theme |
| 2 | **force** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the consciences |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conscience=Recipient |
| 3 | **destroy** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the liberties and lives of a innocent people |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent liberty=Patient |

<!-- .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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