---
title: ‘And what bridge may this be?’ asked the Shifty Lad; and the princes… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘And what bridge may this be?’ asked the Shifty Lad; and the princess told him that this was the bridge of Dublin. Who acts: princess, this. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/3/26/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 26

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‘And what bridge may this be?’ asked the Shifty Lad; and the princess told him that this was the bridge of Dublin.

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**Who acts:** princess, this · **What happens:** be, ask, tell · **To what, where:** Shifty Lad, Lad, bridge · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princess, this), 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:pg3454:3:26
# text = ‘And what bridge may this be?’ asked the Shifty Lad; and the princess told him that this was the bridge of Dublin.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	obj	_	_
4	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	conj	_	_
7	be	be	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	Shifty	shifty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Lad	Lad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Dublin	Dublin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the Shifty Lad |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the princess |  | Lad |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | this | the bridge |  |  |  | of Dublin | tree rules |

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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 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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