---
title: So while the King was still sitting at table finishing his dinner ne… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So while the King was still sitting at table finishing his dinner news was brought to him that his orders had been obeyed to the letter. Who acts: King, sitting. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Flying Ship(24), sentence 97

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So while the King was still sitting at table finishing his dinner news was brought to him that his orders had been obeyed to the letter.

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**Who acts:** King, sitting · **What happens:** sit, finish, bring, obey, order · **To what, where:** table, dinner news, King, orders

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, sitting), 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:pg640:35:97
# text = So while the King was still sitting at table finishing his dinner news was brought to him that his orders had been obeyed to the letter.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	still	still	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	csubj:pass	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	finishing	finish	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | the King |  |  | table | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at table=Location |
| 2 | **finish** | gerund | the King *not said here* | King's dinner news |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality news=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bring** | past · passive | sitting |  | King |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: to he=Destination |
| 4 | **obey** | past · perfect · passive |  | King's orders |  |  |  | to the letter | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **order** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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