---
title: One of the few faults of this lovely princess was a devouring curios… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One of the few faults of this lovely princess was a devouring curiosity, and she lived such an idle life that she had plenty of time to be curious. Who acts: One, princess. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 143

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One of the few faults of this lovely princess was a devouring curiosity, and she lived such an idle life that she had plenty of time to be curious.

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**Who acts:** One, princess · **What happens:** devour, be, live, have, fault · **To what, where:** devouring curiosity, idle life, plenty, lovely princess

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (One, 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:pg3282:33:143
# text = One of the few faults of this lovely princess was a devouring curiosity, and she lived such an idle life that she had plenty of time to be curious.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	faults	fault	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	devouring	devour	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	amod	_	_
13	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	21	det:predet	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
25	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
30	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **devour** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | One of the few faults of this lovely princess | a devouring curiosity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **live** | past | princess | such idle life |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme life=Location |
| 4 | **have** | past | princess | plenty of time |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plenty=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  | curious *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fault** |  |  | this lovely princess |  |  |  |  | nom fault «act 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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