---
title: But they had hardly begun before a messenger came to say that the ki… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But they had hardly begun before a messenger came to say that the king wanted to see them. Who acts: thanks, messenger, king. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 16

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But they had hardly begun before a messenger came to say that the king wanted to see them.

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**Who acts:** thanks, messenger, king · **What happens:** begin, come, say, want, see · **To what, where:** thanks · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thanks, messenger, 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:pg2435:5:16
# text = But they had hardly begun before a messenger came to say that the king wanted to see them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	begun	begin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past · perfect | thanks |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **come** | past | a messenger |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | a messenger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **want** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the king *not said here* | thanks |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

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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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