---
title: So his cake was very sma’; yet sma’ as it was, his mother asked if h… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So his cake was very sma’; yet sma’ as it was, his mother asked if he was willing to take the half of it with her blessing, telling him that, if he chose rather to have the hale, he would only get it wi’ her curse. Who acts: cake, sma, ground, part. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Etin, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So his cake was very sma’; yet sma’ as it was, his mother asked if he was willing to take the half of it with her blessing, telling him that, if he chose rather to have the hale, he would only get it wi’ her curse.

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**Who acts:** cake, sma, ground, part · **What happens:** be, ask, take, tell, choose, have · **To what, where:** sma, mother, half, that, ground, hale · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Red Etin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cake, sma, ground, part), 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:pg503:56:5
# text = So his cake was very sma’; yet sma’ as it was, his mother asked if he was willing to take the half of it with her blessing, telling him that, if he chose rather to have the hale, he would only get it wi’ her curse.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	sma	sma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	sma	sma	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	_
18	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	ccomp	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	24	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	blessing	blessing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	iobj	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
40	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	42	mark	_	_
42	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	xcomp	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	hale	hale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
46	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
47	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
48	only	only	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
50	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obj	_	_
51	wi	wi	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	’	'	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
54	curse	curse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | ground's cake | sma yet sma |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | cake | ground's mother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | sma yet sma |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | ground |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | ground *not said here* | the half of sma |  |  |  | with part's blessing | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent half=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | sma yet sma *not said here* | that | ground |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient that=Topic |
| 7 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | ground |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **have** | to-infinitive | ground *not said here* | the hale |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hale=Patient |
| 9 | **get** | would | ground | cake |  |  |  | ' part's curse | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary wi=Theme |
| 10 | **bless** |  | part |  |  |  |  |  | nom blessing «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 11 | **curse** |  | part |  |  |  |  |  | nom curse «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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