---
title: Princesses he found in plenty; but whether they were real Princesses… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Princesses he found in plenty; but whether they were real Princesses it was impossible for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right about the ladies. Who acts: Princesses, hopes, real Princesses, Prince. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Th
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Real Princess, sentence 3

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Princesses he found in plenty; but whether they were real Princesses it was impossible for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right about the ladies.

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**Who acts:** Princesses, hopes, real Princesses, Prince, another · **What happens:** find, be, decide, seem · **To what, where:** plenty, real Princesses, one thing, Prince

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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 (Princesses, hopes, real Princesses, Prince), 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:pg1597:4:3
# text = Princesses he found in plenty; but whether they were real Princesses it was impossible for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right about the ladies.
1	Princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
8	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	expl	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	decide	decide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	advmod	_	_
27	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	_
32	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
33	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
35	about	about	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | Princesses |  |  | plenty |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | hopes *= hope* | real Princesses |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | real Princesses |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **decide** | to-infinitive | Prince | one thing |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 5 | **seem** | past | another |  | Prince |  | now | right *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |

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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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