---
title: The dragon had been very busy for many years past, and had quite for… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dragon had been very busy for many years past, and had quite forgotten the princess till the news of her betrothal reached his ears. Who acts: dragon. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 29, sentence 44

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The dragon had been very busy for many years past, and had quite forgotten the princess till the news of her betrothal reached his ears.

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**Who acts:** dragon · **What happens:** be, forget, reach, betroth · **To what, where:** princess, ears

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon), 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:pg3027:29:44
# text = The dragon had been very busy for many years past, and had quite forgotten the princess till the news of her betrothal reached his ears.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	past	past	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	till	till	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	betrothal	betrothal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the dragon |  |  |  | year | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **forget** | past · perfect | the dragon *not said here* | the princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **reach** | past | the dragon *not said here* | prince's ears |  |  | till the news of dragon's betrothal |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent ear=Theme |
| 4 | **betroth** |  | dragon |  |  |  |  |  | nom betrothal «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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