---
title: “His Excellency the Count Piro wished the princess to choose them fo… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “His Excellency the Count Piro wished the princess to choose them for herself,” answered the fox, and the king nodded his approval. Who acts: Excellency, fox, king. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 9

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“His Excellency the Count Piro wished the princess to choose them for herself,” answered the fox, and the king nodded his approval.

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**Who acts:** Excellency, fox, king · **What happens:** wish, choose, answer, nod, approve · **To what, where:** princess, servants, approval · **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 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Excellency, fox, king), 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:pg2435:26:9
# text = “His Excellency the Count Piro wished the princess to choose them for herself,” answered the fox, and the king nodded his approval.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	Excellency	excellency	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Count	Count	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	Piro	Piro	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
7	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
17	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	approval	approval	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** *in a quote* | past | king's Excellency | the princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **choose** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | king's Excellency *not said here* | servants *= servant* |  |  |  | for Excellency | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent they=Theme for herself=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **nod** | past | the king | king's approval |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent approval=Patient |
| 5 | **approve** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom approval «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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