---
title: “On hearing these words, the prince said to his heart, “O my heart!… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “On hearing these words, the prince said to his heart, “O my heart! your task will yet wear away much of your life.” Who acts: prince, task, your. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 84

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“On hearing these words, the prince said to his heart, “O my heart! your task will yet wear away much of your life.”

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**Who acts:** prince, task, your · **What happens:** hear, say, wear away, task · **To what, where:** words, much · **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, task, your), 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:pg3282:2:84
# text = “On hearing these words, the prince said to his heart, “O my heart! your task will yet wear away much of your life.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
3	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	ccomp	_	_
4	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	17	discourse	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
19	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	wear	wear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
24	away	away	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** *in a quote* | gerund |  | this words |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  | to prince's heart | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to heart=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **wear away** | future | your task | much of your life |  |  | yet |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent much=Source |
| 4 | **task** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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