---
title: Said the queen to the king, "We'll try it yet; the butler's son is o… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Said the queen to the king, "We'll try it yet; the butler's son is of the same age as our son." Who acts: queen, We, son. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Battle of the Birds, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Said the queen to the king, "We'll try it yet; the butler's son is of the same age as our son."

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**Who acts:** queen, We, son · **What happens:** say, try, be · **To what, where:** king, stone · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (queen, We, son), 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:pg7885:31:74
# text = Said the queen to the king, "We'll try it yet; the butler's son is of the same age as our son."
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	ccomp	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	butler	butler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	ccomp	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the queen |  | the king |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to king=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **try** *in a quote* | future | We | stone |  |  | yet |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the butler's son |  |  |  | of the same age | as our son | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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