---
title: When the merchant saw that the prince was in deadly earnest, he said… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the merchant saw that the prince was in deadly earnest, he said: “If you wish to hear the truth of the matter you must wait upon our king. Who acts: merchant, prince, you. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/120/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/) / 120

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 120

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the merchant saw that the prince was in deadly earnest, he said: “If you wish to hear the truth of the matter you must wait upon our king.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** merchant, prince, you · **What happens:** see, be, say, wish, hear, wait · **To what, where:** truth, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merchant, prince, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:4:120
# text = When the merchant saw that the prince was in deadly earnest, he said: “If you wish to hear the truth of the matter you must wait upon our king.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | the prince |  |  |  |  | earn *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **wish** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **hear** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the truth of the matter |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer truth=Stimulus |
| 6 | **wait** *in a quote* | must | you | the matter *not said here* |  |  |  | upon our king | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/119/)
- next →: [sentence 121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/121/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/)