---
title: The Princess, quite overcome by the strangeness of hearing a cabbage… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Princess, quite overcome by the strangeness of hearing a cabbage, a hen, and a pink speak, and by the terrible sight of an army of rats, suddenly became very pale, and fainted away. Who acts: strangeness. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, with its 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Princess, quite overcome by the strangeness of hearing a cabbage, a hen, and a pink speak, and by the terrible sight of an army of rats, suddenly became very pale, and fainted away.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** strangeness · **What happens:** overcome, hear, become, faint away, sight · **To what, where:** Princess, cabbage, army

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (strangeness), 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:pg503:22:88
# text = The Princess, quite overcome by the strangeness of hearing a cabbage, a hen, and a pink speak, and by the terrible sight of an army of rats, suddenly became very pale, and fainted away.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	overcome	overcome	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	strangeness	strangeness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cabbage	cabbage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	pink	pink	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	speak	speak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
33	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
35	very	very	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	fainted	faint	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	_
40	away	away	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **overcome** | participle · passive | the strangeness | the Princess |  |  |  | a pink speak *obl* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | gerund | the strangeness *not said here* | a cabbage and a hen |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer cabbage=Stimulus |
| 3 | **become** | past |  |  |  |  |  | by the terrible sight of a army of rats; pale, suddenly *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **faint away** | past |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn change\_bodily\_state-40.8.4 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **sight** |  |  | a army of rats |  |  |  |  | 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 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.

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