---
title: At last she said to the King that he ought to ask his daughter wheth… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last she said to the King that he ought to ask his daughter whether she would not like to have another husband instead of the Crab? Who acts: mother, King. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Golden Crab(5), sentence 41

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At last she said to the King that he ought to ask his daughter whether she would not like to have another husband instead of the Crab?

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**Who acts:** mother, King · **What happens:** say, ask, not like, have · **To what, where:** King, last, daughter, husband · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, King), 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:pg640:7:41
# text = At last she said to the King that he ought to ask his daughter whether she would not like to have another husband instead of the Crab?
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obl	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	27	case	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	Crab	Crab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | mother |  | the King | last |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to king=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | ought | King |  | King's daughter |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent daughter=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **like** *not said to happen* | would | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mother *not said here* | another husband |  |  |  | instead the Crab | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent husband=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 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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