---
title: Never was any present in the world as useful as that little box, and… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Never was any present in the world as useful as that little box, and many times did he bless the kind thought of the princess. Who acts: present. 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 94

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Never was any present in the world as useful as that little box, and many times did he bless the kind thought of the princess.

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**Who acts:** present · **What happens:** not be, bless, think · **To what, where:** present, world, kind thought, princess

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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 (present), 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:pg2435:18:94
# text = Never was any present in the world as useful as that little box, and many times did he bless the kind thought of the princess.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	useful	useful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
18	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	bless	bless	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past |  | any present |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bless** | past · do-support | present | the kind thought of the princess |  |  | time |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thought=Theme |
| 3 | **think** |  |  | the princess |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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