---
title: It was commanded that the plan of starving you by degrees should be… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was commanded that the plan of starving you by degrees should be kept a secret; but the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on the books. Who acts: plan, sentence. 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 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was commanded that the plan of starving you by degrees should be kept a secret; but the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on the books.

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**Who acts:** plan, sentence · **What happens:** command, starve, keep, put out, enter · **To what, where:** subject, you, plan, eyes, sentence, books · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (plan, sentence), 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:pg503:46:52
# text = It was commanded that the plan of starving you by degrees should be kept a secret; but the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on the books.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	commanded	command	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	degrees	degree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	putting	put	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	entered	enter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **command** | past · passive |  | subject |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **starve** | gerund | the plan *not said here* | you |  |  |  | by degrees | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** | should · passive |  | the plan |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme secret=Attribute |
| 4 | **put out** | gerund | the sentence *not said here* | your eyes |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent eye=Goal |
| 5 | **enter** | past · passive |  | the sentence |  | the books |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |

<!-- .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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