---
title: They whom he employed began to try it on upon the Princesses, then t… — The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault · tree and pragmatics
description: They whom he employed began to try it on upon the Princesses, then the duchesses, and all the Court, but in vain. Who acts: son, slippers. A sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Prince Took Up Most Carefully"], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Prince Took Up Most Carefully"\], sentence 4

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They whom he employed began to try it on upon the Princesses, then the duchesses, and all the Court, but in vain.

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**Who acts:** son, slippers · **What happens:** employ, begin, try · **To what, where:** ball

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This is a sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Prince Took Up Most Carefully"\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son, slippers), 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:pg29021:12:4
# text = They whom he employed began to try it on upon the Princesses, then the duchesses, and all the Court, but in vain.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	obj	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	employed	employ	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Princesses	Princess	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	duchesses	duchess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **employ** | past | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | slippers *= slipper* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **try** | to-infinitive | slippers *= slipper* *not said here* | ball |  |  |  | on the Princesses and the duchesses | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

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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 Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Project Gutenberg book 29021 (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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