---
title: In short, how can he suppose that I should lay hold of a man so well… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In short, how can he suppose that I should lay hold of a man so well armed, though he is but little? Who acts: Prince, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 5, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In short, how can he suppose that I should lay hold of a man so well armed, though he is but little?

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**Who acts:** Prince, I · **What happens:** suppose, lay, be, hold · **To what, where:** short, hold, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:53:2
# text = In short, how can he suppose that I should lay hold of a man so well armed, though he is but little?
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	suppose	suppose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
12	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
18	armed	armed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **suppose** | can | Prince |  |  | short |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **lay** | should | I | hold of a man |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result |
| 3 | **is** | present | Prince |  |  |  |  | little *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hold** |  |  | a man |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=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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