---
title: There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she must be a real Princess. Who acts: Prince, Princess. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Real Princess, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Real Princess, sentence 1

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There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she must be a real Princess.

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**Who acts:** Prince, Princess · **What happens:** be, wish, marry · **To what, where:** Princess, real Princess

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Real Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, Princess), 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:pg1597:4:1
# text = There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she must be a real Princess.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **wish** | past | a Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **marry** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a Prince *not said here* | a Princess |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | must | Princess | a real Princess |  |  | then |  | tree rules |

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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:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (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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