---
title: The prince hardly knew where to begin, and indeed if he had had a th… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince hardly knew where to begin, and indeed if he had had a thousand people to help him, and a week to do it in, he could never have finished his task. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The prince hardly knew where to begin, and indeed if he had had a thousand people to help him, and a week to do it in, he could never have finished his task.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** know, begin, have, help, do in, not finish · **To what, where:** thousand people, prince, boast, task · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg2435:21:28
# text = The prince hardly knew where to begin, and indeed if he had had a thousand people to help him, and a week to do it in, he could never have finished his task.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
32	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
33	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux	_	_
34	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the prince |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **begin** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | prince | thousand people |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Patient |
| 4 | **help** | to-infinitive | prince *not said here* |  | prince |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **do in** | to-infinitive | the prince *not said here* | boast |  |  | week |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 6 | **not** **finish** | could · perfect | prince | prince's task |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector task=Eventuality |
| 7 | **task** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «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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