---
title: At length the emperor, who could not think what had caused this chan… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length the emperor, who could not think what had caused this change, sent for his son and asked him what was the matter. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length the emperor, who could not think what had caused this change, sent for his son and asked him what was the matter.

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**What happens:** not think, cause, send, ask, be · **To what, where:** length, change, prince, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg2435:10:37
# text = At length the emperor, who could not think what had caused this change, sent for his son and asked him what was the matter.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	caused	cause	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | could |  |  |  | length  the emperor |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **cause** | past · perfect · passive |  | this change |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Theme change=Eventuality |
| 3 | **send** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for prince's son | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | prince |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | 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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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