---
title: The King answered that in that case he could not blame him for prote… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King answered that in that case he could not blame him for protecting his own life, and that Red was well worthy of death. Who acts: King, Ring, Red. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (30), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Prince Ring (30), sentence 155

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The King answered that in that case he could not blame him for protecting his own life, and that Red was well worthy of death.

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**Who acts:** King, Ring, Red · **What happens:** answer, not blame, protect, be · **To what, where:** opinion, case, own life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (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, Ring, Red), 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:pg640:42:155
# text = The King answered that in that case he could not blame him for protecting his own life, and that Red was well worthy of death.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	blame	blame	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	protecting	protect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	Red	Red	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
24	worthy	worthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the King |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **blame** | could | Ring | opinion |  | that case |  |  | vn judgment-33.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **protect** | gerund | Ring *not said here* | Ring's own life |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **is** | past | Red |  |  |  |  | of death; well, worthy *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 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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