---
title: “Someone has told the king that I have prophesied that a child shall… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Someone has told the king that I have prophesied that a child shall be born this night in the palace, who can speak all the languages in the world and play every musical instrument. Who acts: king, palace. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, with 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Someone has told the king that I have prophesied that a child shall be born this night in the palace, who can speak all the languages in the world and play every musical instrument.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, palace · **What happens:** tell, prophesy, bear, speak, play · **To what, where:** Someone, king, child, palace, languages, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (king, palace), 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:pg2435:21:69
# text = “Someone has told the king that I have prophesied that a child shall be born this night in the palace, who can speak all the languages in the world and play every musical instrument.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	prophesied	prophesy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl:relcl	_	_
26	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	28	det:predet	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	languages	language	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
34	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	36	det	_	_
35	musical	musical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	instrument	instrument	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Someone | the king |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient king=Topic |
| 2 | **prophesy** *in a quote* | present · perfect | king | the king |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 3 | **bear** *in a quote* | shall · passive |  | a child |  | the palace | night |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | can | the palace | all languages |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **play** *in a quote* | present | the palace *not said here* | every musical instrument |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instrument=Theme |

<!-- .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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