---
title: ‘My little lambkin, are you willing to marry the great King Merlin’s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My little lambkin, are you willing to marry the great King Merlin’s son, for this Ambassador has come on his behalf to fetch you?’ Who acts: little lambkin, Ambassador. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, sentence 9

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‘My little lambkin, are you willing to marry the great King Merlin’s son, for this Ambassador has come on his behalf to fetch you?’

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**Who acts:** little lambkin, Ambassador · **What happens:** be, marry, come, fetch · **To what, where:** son, behalf, you

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little lambkin, Ambassador), 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:pg540:4:9
# text = ‘My little lambkin, are you willing to marry the great King Merlin’s son, for this Ambassador has come on his behalf to fetch you?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	lambkin	lambkin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	Merlin	Merlin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	Ambassador	Ambassador	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	behalf	behalf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | My little lambkin |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **marry** | to-infinitive | My little lambkin *not said here* | the great King Merlin's son |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **come** | present · perfect | this Ambassador |  |  | Ambassador's behalf |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on behalf=Location |
| 4 | **fetch** | to-infinitive | this Ambassador *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |

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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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