---
title: But during his long absence the prince seemed to have changed his ch… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But during his long absence the prince seemed to have changed his character altogether. Who acts: prince, father. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 55

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But during his long absence the prince seemed to have changed his character altogether.

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**Who acts:** prince, father · **What happens:** seem, change, absent · **To what, where:** character

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, 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:pg2435:18:55
# text = But during his long absence the prince seemed to have changed his character altogether.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	during	during	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux	_	_
11	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	xcomp	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the prince |  |  |  | during father's long absence |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **change** | to-infinitive · perfect | the prince *not said here* | father's character |  |  |  | altogether *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent character=Patient |
| 3 | **absent** |  | father |  |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «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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