---
title: All that he could do was to prevent his killing the grand vizier, wh… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: All that he could do was to prevent his killing the grand vizier, who sat not far from him, representing to him that he had always given the Sultan his father good advice. Who acts: Sultan, grand vizier. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Pari
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 5, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All that he could do was to prevent his killing the grand vizier, who sat not far from him, representing to him that he had always given the Sultan his father good advice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Sultan, grand vizier · **What happens:** do, be, prevent, kill, not sit, represent · **To what, where:** grand vizier, Sultan

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Sultan, grand vizier), 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:pg503:53:28
# text = All that he could do was to prevent his killing the grand vizier, who sat not far from him, representing to him that he had always given the Sultan his father good advice.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	0	root	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Gender=Masc|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	killing	kill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	vizier	vizier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
18	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	representing	represent	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	conj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	29	advmod	_	_
29	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
34	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | could | Sultan |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **be** | past | Sultan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | Sultan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **kill** | gerund | Sultan | the grand vizier |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vizier=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **sit** | past | the grand vizier |  |  |  |  | from Sultan; far *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **represent** | gerund | Sultan *not said here* |  | Sultan |  |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot to he=Attribute |
| 7 | **give** | past · perfect · passive |  | Sultan |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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