---
title: He could hardly believe his own eyes for joy when he saw the prince,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He could hardly believe his own eyes for joy when he saw the prince, and Sigurd told him all his adventures. Who acts: son, Sigurd. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 20

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He could hardly believe his own eyes for joy when he saw the prince, and Sigurd told him all his adventures.

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**Who acts:** son, Sigurd · **What happens:** believe, see, tell, adventure · **To what, where:** own eyes, prince, adventures, son · **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 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, Sigurd), 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:pg2435:34:20
# text = He could hardly believe his own eyes for joy when he saw the prince, and Sigurd told him all his adventures.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	Sigurd	Sigurd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	adventures	adventure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | could | son | son's own eyes |  |  |  | for joy; hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus for joy=Attribute |
| 2 | **see** | past | son | the prince |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prince=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Sigurd | son's adventures | son |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient adventure=Topic |
| 4 | **adventure** |  | son |  |  |  |  |  | nom adventure «act transitive»: 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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