---
title: The porter shuts his wicket and goes up to say it to the King, who w… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The porter shuts his wicket and goes up to say it to the King, who was just sitting down to dinner with a napkin round his neck, and all his ministers. Who acts: porter, King. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Kari Woodengown, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Kari Woodengown, part 3, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The porter shuts his wicket and goes up to say it to the King, who was just sitting down to dinner with a napkin round his neck, and all his ministers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** porter, King · **What happens:** shut, go up, say, sit down · **To what, where:** wicket, King · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Kari Woodengown, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (porter, King), 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:pg540:31:52
# text = The porter shuts his wicket and goes up to say it to the King, who was just sitting down to dinner with a napkin round his neck, and all his ministers.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	porter	porter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	shuts	shut	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	wicket	wicket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	acl:relcl	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	napkin	napkin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	round	round	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	33	det:predet	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	ministers	minister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shut** | present | the porter | porter's wicket |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wicket=Patient |
| 2 | **go up** | present | the porter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the porter *not said here* | wicket | the King |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to king=Recipient |
| 4 | **sit down** | past · progressive | the King |  |  |  |  | to dinner; with a napkin round King's neck; down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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 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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