---
title: The King answered that in a certain country there was a King who had… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King answered that in a certain country there was a King who had a beautiful daughter, and he thought it would be most desirable if Sigurd could get her. Who acts: King, Sigurd, country. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its dependency tr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The King answered that in a certain country there was a King who had a beautiful daughter, and he thought it would be most desirable if Sigurd could get her.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, Sigurd, country · **What happens:** answer, be, have, think, get · **To what, where:** certain country, beautiful daughter, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, Sigurd, country), 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:pg640:47:5
# text = The King answered that in a certain country there was a King who had a beautiful daughter, and he thought it would be most desirable if Sigurd could get her.
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	_	10	mark	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
25	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	26	advmod	_	_
26	desirable	desirable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	ccomp	_	_
27	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	Sigurd	Sigurd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
31	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the King |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | past | a King |  |  | a certain country; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in country=Location |
| 3 | **have** | past | a King | a beautiful daughter |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Sigurd |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | would | country |  |  |  |  | desirable *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **get** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | Sigurd | wife |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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