---
title: The prince thought, “It would be excellent if here, in her very hous… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince thought, “It would be excellent if here, in her very house, I could get the answer to her riddle; but I must be silent, on pain of death.” Who acts: prince, house, princess. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 59

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The prince thought, “It would be excellent if here, in her very house, I could get the answer to her riddle; but I must be silent, on pain of death.”

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**Who acts:** prince, house, princess · **What happens:** think, be, get, riddle, pain · **To what, where:** answer, house, death · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, house, 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:pg3282:2:59
# text = The prince thought, “It would be excellent if here, in her very house, I could get the answer to her riddle; but I must be silent, on pain of death.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
9	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	riddle	riddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | would | house |  |  |  |  | excellent *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** *in a quote* | could | the prince *= prince* | the answer |  | princess's house |  | to princess's riddle | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer answer=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | must | the prince *= prince* |  |  |  |  | silent *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **riddle** *in a quote* |  | princess |  |  |  |  |  | nom riddle «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **pain** *in a quote* |  |  | death |  |  |  |  | nom pain «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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