---
title: Bowing low before the fairest in the world, he spoke: ‘Noble lady, w… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Bowing low before the fairest in the world, he spoke: ‘Noble lady, will you do me the honour to become my wife?’ Who acts: king, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 38, sentence 89

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Bowing low before the fairest in the world, he spoke: ‘Noble lady, will you do me the honour to become my wife?’

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**Who acts:** king, you · **What happens:** bow, speak, do, become · **To what, where:** fairest, Noble lady, honour, me, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, you), 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:pg5615:38:89
# text = Bowing low before the fairest in the world, he spoke: ‘Noble lady, will you do me the honour to become my wife?’
1	Bowing	bow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
2	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	1	advmod	_	_
3	before	before	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fairest	fair	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	1	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | gerund | king *not said here* |  |  | the fairest |  | low *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before fair=Location |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | king | Noble lady |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** | future | you | the honour | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **become** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | my wife |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 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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