---
title: ‘Don’t you think that a desperate errand?’ said the King, ‘seeing th… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Don’t you think that a desperate errand?’ said the King, ‘seeing they are so dangerous, and no one has ever yet ventured to go against them?’ Who acts: you, desperate errand, King. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (30), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Prince Ring (30), sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Don’t you think that a desperate errand?’ said the King, ‘seeing they are so dangerous, and no one has ever yet ventured to go against them?’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, desperate errand, King · **What happens:** not do, think, say, see, be, venture · **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 (you, desperate errand, King), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:42:66
# text = ‘Don’t you think that a desperate errand?’ said the King, ‘seeing they are so dangerous, and no one has ever yet ventured to go against them?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	desperate	desperate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	_
28	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	ventured	venture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	against	against	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a desperate errand |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | gerund | a desperate errand *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | present | King |  |  |  |  | dangerous *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **venture** | present · perfect |  |  |  |  | yet |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | against King | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme against they=Location |

<!-- .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 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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