---
title: Then he turned to the princess: “Tell us the truth, princess; who to… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he turned to the princess: “Tell us the truth, princess; who told you of this thing? Who acts: God. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 25

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Then he turned to the princess: “Tell us the truth, princess; who told you of this thing?

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**Who acts:** God · **What happens:** turn, tell · **To what, where:** truth, us, you · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (God), 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:pg3282:6:25
# text = Then he turned to the princess: “Tell us the truth, princess; who told you of this thing?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
10	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | God |  |  |  | then | to the princess *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to princess=Result |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | God *not said here* | the truth | us |  |  | princess *obl* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient truth=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  |  | you |  |  | of this thing | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

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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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