---
title: Having promised this, he joyfully returned home, and as he was ridin… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Having promised this, he joyfully returned home, and as he was riding through the forest he could perfectly understand all that the birds said. Who acts: prince, birds. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Having promised this, he joyfully returned home, and as he was riding through the forest he could perfectly understand all that the birds said.

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**Who acts:** prince, birds · **What happens:** have, promise, return, ride, understand, say · **To what, where:** this, forest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, birds), 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:pg503:26:82
# text = Having promised this, he joyfully returned home, and as he was riding through the forest he could perfectly understand all that the birds said.
1	Having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	xcomp	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	joyfully	joyfully	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	home	home	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	riding	ride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | gerund | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | participle | prince *not said here* | this |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent this=Theme |
| 3 | **return** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | home, joyfully *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **ride** | past · progressive | prince |  |  | the forest |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent through forest=Trajectory |
| 5 | **understand** | could | prince |  |  |  |  | perfectly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the birds |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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