---
title: The queen would not christen the boy till the king came back, and sh… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The queen would not christen the boy till the king came back, and she said, “We will just call him _Nix Nought Nothing_ until his father comes home.” Who acts: queen, king, We, father. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 3

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The queen would not christen the boy till the king came back, and she said, “We will just call him \_Nix Nought Nothing\_ until his father comes home.”

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**Who acts:** queen, king, We, father · **What happens:** not christen, come back, say, call, come · **To what, where:** boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (queen, king, We, father), 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:pg7439:12:3
# text = The queen would not christen the boy till the king came back, and she said, “We will just call him _Nix Nought Nothing_ until his father comes home.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	christen	christen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	just	just	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Nix	Nix	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	Nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	22	xcomp	_	_
27	Nothing	Nothing	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	27	punct	_	_
29	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
33	home	home	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **christen** | would | the queen | the boy |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent boy=Result |
| 2 | **come back** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | queen |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **call** *in a quote* | future | We |  | boy |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | present | boy's father |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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