---
title: Now the princess had been wondering for many days what trimming she… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the princess had been wondering for many days what trimming she should put on her dresses, so that they should outshine the dresses of the other ladies at the court balls. Who acts: princess, dresses. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tre
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/50/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/) / 50

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 14, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now the princess had been wondering for many days what trimming she should put on her dresses, so that they should outshine the dresses of the other ladies at the court balls.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princess, dresses · **What happens:** wonder, trim, put, outshine · **To what, where:** many days, dresses, court balls

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess, dresses), 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:pg3027:14:50
# text = Now the princess had been wondering for many days what trimming she should put on her dresses, so that they should outshine the dresses of the other ladies at the court balls.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	aux	_	_
6	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
11	trimming	trim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	23	mark	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	outshine	outshine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past · perfect · progressive | the princess |  |  |  | now; day |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **trim** | gerund |  | many days |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **put** | should | princess |  |  | princess's dresses |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on dress=Destination |
| 4 | **outshine** | should | dresses *= dress* | the dresses of the other ladies |  | the court balls |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot dress=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/49/)
- next →: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/51/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/)