---
title: To comfort her husband, the princess had spoken lightly and gaily; b… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To comfort her husband, the princess had spoken lightly and gaily; but she knew very well she had no light task before her. Who acts: princess. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 3

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To comfort her husband, the princess had spoken lightly and gaily; but she knew very well she had no light task before her.

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**Who acts:** princess · **What happens:** comfort, speak, know, have · **To what, where:** husband, princess, light task · **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 26. 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:pg3282:26:3
# text = To comfort her husband, the princess had spoken lightly and gaily; but she knew very well she had no light task before her.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	comfort	comfort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	gaily	gaily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
22	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	before	before	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **comfort** | to-infinitive |  | desert's husband |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus husband=Experiencer |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | the princess |  |  |  | lightly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | past | princess |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **have** | past | princess | no light task |  |  | before desert |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=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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