---
title: The hands led a wooden horse up to the Prince, and seemed to expect… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The hands led a wooden horse up to the Prince, and seemed to expect him to mount it, at which he was very indignant; but it was no use for him to object, for he speedily found himself upon its back, and it pranced gaily off with him. Who acts: hands, horse, sight, hunting. A sentence of «The Blue Fa
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The hands led a wooden horse up to the Prince, and seemed to expect him to mount it, at which he was very indignant; but it was no use for him to object, for he speedily found himself upon its back, and it pranced gaily off with him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hands, horse, sight, hunting · **What happens:** lead up, seem, expect, mount, be, find · **To what, where:** wooden horse, horse, hunting, use, sight

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hands, horse, sight, hunting), 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:pg503:23:51
# text = The hands led a wooden horse up to the Prince, and seemed to expect him to mount it, at which he was very indignant; but it was no use for him to object, for he speedily found himself upon its back, and it pranced gaily off with him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	expect	expect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	mount	mount	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obl	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	very	very	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	indignant	indignant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	32	det	_	_
32	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nmod	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	object	object	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	speedily	speedily	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
42	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	41	obj	_	_
43	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
49	pranced	prance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
50	gaily	gaily	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
51	off	off	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
52	with	with	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lead up** | past | the hands | a wooden horse |  |  |  | to the Prince | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **expect** | to-infinitive |  | horse |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **mount** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | horse *not said here* | hunting |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | sight |  |  |  |  | indignant *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | past | hunting | no use |  |  |  | for sight | tree rules |
| 7 | **find** | past | sight | sight |  |  |  | upon hunting's back; speedily *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 8 | **prance** | past | hunting |  |  |  |  | with sight; off *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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