---
title: When the king saw how handsome he was, he said: ‘My lad, I have pity… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the king saw how handsome he was, he said: ‘My lad, I have pity on your youth. Who acts: king, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground, sentence 33

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When the king saw how handsome he was, he said: ‘My lad, I have pity on your youth.

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**Who acts:** king, I · **What happens:** see, be, say, have · **To what, where:** pity, youth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, I), 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:pg641:37:33
# text = When the king saw how handsome he was, he said: ‘My lad, I have pity on your youth.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
6	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | handsome *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  | My lad *vocative* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | present | I | pity |  | your youth |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pity=Patient |

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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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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