---
title: While they were wondering how they should reach his father’s court,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were wondering how they should reach his father’s court, they saw a splendid coach driven by six gaily caparisoned horses coming along the bank. Who acts: maidens, six gaily caparisoned horses. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 119

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While they were wondering how they should reach his father’s court, they saw a splendid coach driven by six gaily caparisoned horses coming along the bank.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** maidens, six gaily caparisoned horses · **What happens:** wonder, reach, see, drive, caparison, come · **To what, where:** court, splendid coach, bank · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maidens, six gaily caparisoned horses), 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:pg503:26:119
# text = While they were wondering how they should reach his father’s court, they saw a splendid coach driven by six gaily caparisoned horses coming along the bank.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	coach	coach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
22	gaily	gaily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	caparisoned	caparison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
25	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	acl	_	_
26	along	along	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past · progressive | maidens *= maiden* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **reach** | should | maidens *= maiden* | prince's father's court |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent court=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | maidens *= maiden* | a splendid coach |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer coach=Stimulus |
| 4 | **drive** | participle |  | a splendid coach *not said here* |  |  |  | by six gaily caparisoned horses | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **caparison** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **come** | gerund | six gaily caparisoned horses *not said here* |  |  | the bank |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme along bank=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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