---
title: The Shifty Lad felt nothing, but as he approached the king’s daughte… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Shifty Lad felt nothing, but as he approached the king’s daughter to ask her to be his partner he caught sight of the black dot in a silver mirror. Who acts: Shifty Lad, Lad. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Shifty Lad felt nothing, but as he approached the king’s daughter to ask her to be his partner he caught sight of the black dot in a silver mirror.

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**Who acts:** Shifty Lad, Lad · **What happens:** feel, approach, ask, be, catch, sight · **To what, where:** nothing, daughter, thief, partner, sight, black dot

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Shifty Lad, Lad), 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:pg3454:2:98
# text = The Shifty Lad felt nothing, but as he approached the king’s daughter to ask her to be his partner he caught sight of the black dot in a silver mirror.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Shifty	shifty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Lad	Lad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	partner	partner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	dot	dot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past | the Shifty Lad | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Theme |
| 2 | **approach** | past | Lad | the king's daughter |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | Lad *not said here* |  | thief |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Lad *not said here* | Lad's partner |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **catch** | past | Lad | sight of the black dot in a silver mirror |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | the black dot in a silver mirror |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition 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 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.

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