---
title: ‘I think, sir,’ says the prince, ‘it was only good manner to wait to… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I think, sir,’ says the prince, ‘it was only good manner to wait to be asked.’ Who acts: I, sky. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/116/)

<!-- 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 Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/) / 116

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 116

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I think, sir,’ says the prince, ‘it was only good manner to wait to be asked.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, sky · **What happens:** think, say, be, wait, ask · **To what, where:** prince, good manner · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, sky), 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:pg3454:10:116
# text = ‘I think, sir,’ says the prince, ‘it was only good manner to wait to be asked.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  | sir *vocative* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  | the prince |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent prince=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past | sky | good manner |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **wait** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V» |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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 115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/115/)
- next →: [sentence 117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/117/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/)