---
title: The king turned pale when he heard these words, and his hand tremble… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The king turned pale when he heard these words, and his hand trembled so that he could hardly read what the queen had written. Who acts: king, hand. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 79

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The king turned pale when he heard these words, and his hand trembled so that he could hardly read what the queen had written.

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**Who acts:** king, hand · **What happens:** turn, hear, tremble, read, write · **To what, where:** words, queen

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, hand), 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:pg3027:28:79
# text = The king turned pale when he heard these words, and his hand trembled so that he could hardly read what the queen had written.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	trembled	tremble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
15	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	20	mark	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | the king |  |  |  |  | pale *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | past | king | this words |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tremble** | participle | king's hand |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **read** | could | king |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **write** | past · perfect · passive |  | the queen |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient what=Topic |

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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 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.

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