---
title: “What is the matter, dear prince?” said a voice just above him, and… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “What is the matter, dear prince?” said a voice just above him, and raising his head, he saw the wild duck. Who acts: voice, prince. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 54

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“What is the matter, dear prince?” said a voice just above him, and raising his head, he saw the wild duck.

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**Who acts:** voice, prince · **What happens:** be, say, raise, see · **To what, where:** matter, head, wild duck · **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 (voice, 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:pg2435:21:54
# text = “What is the matter, dear prince?” said a voice just above him, and raising his head, he saw the wild duck.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	just	just	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	above	above	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	raising	raise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | a voice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **raise** | gerund | prince *not said here* | prince's head |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | prince | the wild duck |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer duck=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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