---
title: The Prince suddenly remembered the gold-spinners, and said to himsel… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Prince suddenly remembered the gold-spinners, and said to himself: “If I ride thither, who knows but that they could explain this to me?” Who acts: Prince, I, spinners. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Prince suddenly remembered the gold-spinners, and said to himself: “If I ride thither, who knows but that they could explain this to me?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, I, spinners · **What happens:** remember, say, ride, know, explain · **To what, where:** gold spinners, prince, this, me · **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 (Prince, I, spinners), 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:pg503:26:75
# text = The Prince suddenly remembered the gold-spinners, and said to himself: “If I ride thither, who knows but that they could explain this to me?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	spinners	spinner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	ride	ride	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	thither	thither	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
28	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** | past | the Prince | the gold spinners |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent spinner=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | prince |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 3 | **ride** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  | thither *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **know** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **explain** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | could | spinners *= spinner* | this | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent this=Topic to i=Recipient |

<!-- .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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