---
title: The king then asked him if he could produce to him his sister as bea… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The king then asked him if he could produce to him his sister as beautiful as he had formerly described her. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 20

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The king then asked him if he could produce to him his sister as beautiful as he had formerly described her.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** ask, produce, describe · **To what, where:** beak, sister, king

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 32. 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:pg5615:32:20
# text = The king then asked him if he could produce to him his sister as beautiful as he had formerly described her.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	produce	produce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	csubj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	as	as	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	formerly	formerly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	described	describe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	_
21	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the king |  | beak |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **produce** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | king | beak's sister | beak |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sister=Result |
| 3 | **describe** | past · perfect · passive |  | king |  |  |  | formerly *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 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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