---
title: On the lid of each (which the king vainly tried to open) was an insc… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On the lid of each (which the king vainly tried to open) was an inscription in diamonds. Who acts: king, lid. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/35/70/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 70

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On the lid of each (which the king vainly tried to open) was an inscription in diamonds.

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**Who acts:** king, lid · **What happens:** try, open, be · **To what, where:** diamonds

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, lid), 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:pg2435:35:70
# text = On the lid of each (which the king vainly tried to open) was an inscription in diamonds.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	lid	lid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
5	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
6	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
10	vainly	vainly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	13	punct	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	inscription	inscription	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vainly *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **open** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the lid |  |  | diamonds |  | of each inscription | tree rules |

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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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