---
title: But it was in vain that he talked; the prince would listen to nothin… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was in vain that he talked; the prince would listen to nothing, and the following morning buckled on his sword and set forth on his journey. Who acts: order, king, prince. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it was in vain that he talked; the prince would listen to nothing, and the following morning buckled on his sword and set forth on his journey.

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**Who acts:** order, king, prince · **What happens:** be, talk, listen, follow, buckle, set · **To what, where:** following morning, journey

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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 (order, king, prince), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2435:18:69
# text = But it was in vain that he talked; the prince would listen to nothing, and the following morning buckled on his sword and set forth on his journey.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
20	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	buckled	buckle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
27	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | order |  |  |  |  | vain *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **talk** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **listen** | would | the prince |  |  |  | morning | to nothing | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to nothing=Theme |
| 4 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **buckle** | participle |  | the following morning *not said here* |  |  |  | on king's sword | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient on sword=Co-Patient |
| 6 | **set** | infinitive | the prince *not said here* |  |  | king's journey |  | forth *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on journey=Destination |
| 7 | **journey** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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