---
title: The Princes were angry, and were beginning to complain that it was a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Princes were angry, and were beginning to complain that it was a trick, when suddenly the trumpets sounded and the youngest Prince came in. Who acts: Princes, muslin, trumpets, youngest Prince. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 2, sentence 22

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The Princes were angry, and were beginning to complain that it was a trick, when suddenly the trumpets sounded and the youngest Prince came in.

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**Who acts:** Princes, muslin, trumpets, youngest Prince · **What happens:** be, begin, complain, sound, come in · **To what, where:** trick

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, 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 (Princes, muslin, trumpets, youngest Prince), 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:pg503:24:22
# text = The Princes were angry, and were beginning to complain that it was a trick, when suddenly the trumpets sounded and the youngest Prince came in.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	beginning	begin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	complain	complain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
18	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	trumpets	trumpet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	25	amod	_	_
25	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
27	in	in	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Princes |  |  |  |  | angry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past · progressive | the Princes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **complain** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the Princes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | muslin | a trick |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sound** | past | the trumpets |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 6 | **come in** | past | the youngest Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 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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