---
title: “Yes, it was,” answered the princess; and she told him the whole sto… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Yes, it was,” answered the princess; and she told him the whole story, and how she had broken her gold ring and given him half of it. Who acts: princess. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Yes, it was,” answered the princess; and she told him the whole story, and how she had broken her gold ring and given him half of it.

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**Who acts:** princess · **What happens:** be, tell, break, give · **To what, where:** whole story, suspicion, gold ring, half · **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 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess), 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:pg3282:19:38
# text = “Yes, it was,” answered the princess; and she told him the whole story, and how she had broken her gold ring and given him half of it.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	parataxis	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	gold	gold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	conj	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	29	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the princess |  |  |  |  | answer *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | princess | the whole story | suspicion |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient story=Topic |
| 3 | **break** | past · perfect | princess | princess's gold ring |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ring=Patient |
| 4 | **give** | participle | princess *not said here* | half of seat | suspicion |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient half=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.

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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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