---
title: But the king was paying very little attention to her, for he was rat… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the king was paying very little attention to her, for he was rather cross and very tired. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 41

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But the king was paying very little attention to her, for he was rather cross and very tired.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** pay, be · **To what, where:** little attention, woman

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg5615:30:41
# text = But the king was paying very little attention to her, for he was rather cross and very tired.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	paying	pay	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	attention	attention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pay** | past · progressive | the king | little attention | woman |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attention=Asset |
| 2 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | cross *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | 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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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