--- title: The King was growing old and feeble, and wished to yield his sceptre… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The King was growing old and feeble, and wished to yield his sceptre and crown in favour of one of his sons, but he couldn’t make up his mind which of the three he should appoint as his successor. Who acts: King, three. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4, with --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/66/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Biter Bit, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/) / 66 # The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 66 The King was growing old and feeble, and wished to yield his sceptre and crown in favour of one of his sons, but he couldn’t make up his mind which of the three he should appoint as his successor. **Who acts:** King, three · **What happens:** grow, wish, yield, not make up, appoint, mind · **To what, where:** sceptre, favour, mind This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, three), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7277:29:66 # text = The King was growing old and feeble, and wished to yield his sceptre and crown in favour of one of his sons, but he couldn’t make up his mind which of the three he should appoint as his successor. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 King King PROPN NNP Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 aux _ _ 4 growing grow VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ _ 5 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 xcomp _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 7 feeble feeble ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 10 wished wish VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 11 to to PART TO _ 12 mark _ _ 12 yield yield VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 xcomp _ _ 13 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 14 nmod:poss _ _ 14 sceptre sceptre NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ _ 15 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 16 crown crown NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 conj _ _ 17 in in ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 favour favour NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obl _ _ 19 of of ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 20 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 18 nmod _ _ 21 of of ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 22 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 23 nmod:poss _ _ 23 sons son NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 25 but but CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 26 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 27 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 29 aux _ SpaceAfter=No 28 n’t not PART RB Polarity=Neg 29 advmod _ _ 29 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 advcl _ _ 30 up up ADP RP _ 29 compound:prt _ _ 31 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 32 nmod:poss _ _ 32 mind mind NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ _ 33 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 39 obj _ _ 34 of of ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 39 nsubj _ _ 37 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 38 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 39 aux _ _ 39 appoint appoint VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 32 acl:relcl _ _ 40 as as ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 42 nmod:poss _ _ 42 successor successor NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **grow** | past · progressive | the King | | | | | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **wish** | past | the King *not said here* | | | | | | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | | 3 | **yield** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* | king's sceptre and crown | | favour of one of king's sons | | | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent sceptre=Theme | | 4 | **not** **make up** | could | king | king's mind | | | | | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot | | 5 | **appoint** | should | the three | king's mind | | | | as king's successor | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent which=Theme as successor=Attribute | | 6 | **mind** | | king | | | | | | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/65/) - next →: [sentence 67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/67/) - ↑ back to [The Biter Bit, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/)