---
title: What they said was very true; for a few days after the King’s son ca… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What they said was very true; for a few days after the King’s son caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot the slipper would just fit. Who acts: ladies, few days, sound, son. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glas
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/83/)

<!-- 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 Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/) / 83

# The Blue Fairy Book, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What they said was very true; for a few days after the King’s son caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot the slipper would just fit.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ladies, few days, sound, son, slipper · **What happens:** say, be, cause, proclaim, marry, fit · **To what, where:** twelve, Cinderella, foot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ladies, few days, sound, son), 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:pg503:11:83
# text = What they said was very true; for a few days after the King’s son caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot the slipper would just fit.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
17	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	proclaimed	proclaim	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	trumpet	trumpet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	slipper	slipper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
37	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	just	just	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	fit	fit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | ladies *= lady* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cause** | past | a few days after the King's son | twelve |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition it=Patient |
| 4 | **proclaim** | to-infinitive · passive | sound of trumpet |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **marry** | would | son | Cinderella |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **fit** | would | the slipper | foot *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/82/)
- next →: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/84/)
- ↑ back to [Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/11/)