---
title: The King didn’t pause to ponder long, ‘for what,’ thought he, ‘could… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King didn’t pause to ponder long, ‘for what,’ thought he, ‘could be in my palace without my knowing about it--the thing is absurd;’ so he answered quickly: Who acts: King, my, thing. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 23

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The King didn’t pause to ponder long, ‘for what,’ thought he, ‘could be in my palace without my knowing about it--the thing is absurd;’ so he answered quickly:

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**Who acts:** King, my, thing · **What happens:** not pause, ponder, think, be, know, answer · **To what, where:** palace · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, my, thing), 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:pg7277:27:23
# text = The King didn’t pause to ponder long, ‘for what,’ thought he, ‘could be in my palace without my knowing about it--the thing is absurd;’ so he answered quickly:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	pause	pause	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	ponder	ponder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
24	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
27	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	absurd	absurd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	38	punct	_	_
36	so	so	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
39	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **pause** | past · do-support | the King |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ponder** | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | could | KING |  |  | my palace |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **know** | gerund | my | my palace *not said here* |  |  |  | about palace | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer palace=Stimulus |
| 6 | **is** | present | the thing |  |  |  |  | absurd *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | KING |  |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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