---
title: In an instant the baby stretched out its little hands and began to p… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant the baby stretched out its little hands and began to play a tune so beautiful that even the prince forgot his sorrows as he listened. 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 pragmatics of
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 74

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In an instant the baby stretched out its little hands and began to play a tune so beautiful that even the prince forgot his sorrows as he listened.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** stretch out, begin, play, forget, listen, sorrow · **To what, where:** baby, instant, tune, sorrows

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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:pg2435:21:74
# text = In an instant the baby stretched out its little hands and began to play a tune so beautiful that even the prince forgot his sorrows as he listened.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	even	even	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	forgot	forget	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	sorrows	sorrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stretch out** | participle · passive |  | the baby |  | a instant |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Patient hand=Result |
| 2 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **play** | to-infinitive |  | a tune |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tune=Theme |
| 4 | **forget** | past | the prince | prince's sorrows |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **listen** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **sorrow** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: 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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