---
title: Niels was silent, and wondered what the usual penalty was for a poor… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Niels was silent, and wondered what the usual penalty was for a poor sheep-farmer’s son who was so unfortunate as to deliver a princess and carry off things from her bed-room. Who acts: Niels, son. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, with its depen
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/31/9/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Niels was silent, and wondered what the usual penalty was for a poor sheep-farmer’s son who was so unfortunate as to deliver a princess and carry off things from her bed-room.

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**Who acts:** Niels, son · **What happens:** be, wonder, deliver, carry off · **To what, where:** princess, things, bed room · **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 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Niels, son), 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:pg2435:31:9
# text = Niels was silent, and wondered what the usual penalty was for a poor sheep-farmer’s son who was so unfortunate as to deliver a princess and carry off things from her bed-room.
1	Niels	Niels	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	nsubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	penalty	penalty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	deliver	deliver	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
31	off	off	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
33	from	from	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
35	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Niels |  |  |  |  | silent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for a poor sheep farmer's son | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | a poor sheep farmer's son |  |  |  |  | unfortunate *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **deliver** | to-infinitive | a poor sheep farmer's son *not said here* | a princess |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Patient |
| 6 | **carry off** | infinitive | a poor sheep farmer's son *not said here* | things |  | princess's bed room |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent thing=Theme from room=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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