---
title: ‘I see no way of saving our sons except by having Rosette’s head cut… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I see no way of saving our sons except by having Rosette’s head cut off while she is still little.’ Who acts: I, way, head, Rosette. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Princess Rosette, sentence 23

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‘I see no way of saving our sons except by having Rosette’s head cut off while she is still little.’

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**Who acts:** I, way, head, Rosette · **What happens:** see, save, have, cut off, be · **To what, where:** way, sons, head

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, way, head, Rosette), 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:pg540:11:23
# text = ‘I see no way of saving our sons except by having Rosette’s head cut off while she is still little.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	saving	save	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
8	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	except	except	ADP	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	Rosette	Rosette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	xcomp	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	still	still	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | I | no way |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus |
| 2 | **save** | gerund | no way *not said here* | our sons |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | gerund | no way *not said here* | Rosette's head |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **cut off** | participle | Rosette's head *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** | present | Rosette |  |  |  | still | little *property* | tree rules |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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