---
title: The prince, however, pleaded so hard to be told, that at last there… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince, however, pleaded so hard to be told, that at last there was nothing to be done but to let him hear. Who acts: Prince. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 56

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The prince, however, pleaded so hard to be told, that at last there was nothing to be done but to let him hear.

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**Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** plead, tell, do, let, hear · **To what, where:** prince · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince), 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:pg3282:1:56
# text = The prince, however, pleaded so hard to be told, that at last there was nothing to be done but to let him hear.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	pleaded	plead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	nsubj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plead** *speech: request* | participle |  | the prince *not said here* |  |  |  | hard, however *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **let** | to-infinitive |  | Prince |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hear** | infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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