---
title: Now it happened that one of the Princess’s ladies in chasing a spide… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now it happened that one of the Princess’s ladies in chasing a spider had knocked the flask off the shelf and broken it, and every drop of the water had been spilt. Who acts: it, ladies, drop. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 187

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now it happened that one of the Princess’s ladies in chasing a spider had knocked the flask off the shelf and broken it, and every drop of the water had been spilt.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, ladies, drop · **What happens:** happen, chase, knock, break, be · **To what, where:** spider, one, flask, spilt

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, ladies, drop), 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:pg503:28:187
# text = Now it happened that one of the Princess’s ladies in chasing a spider had knocked the flask off the shelf and broken it, and every drop of the water had been spilt.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	chasing	chase	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	knocked	knock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	flask	flask	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	off	off	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	shelf	shelf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
27	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	cop	_	_
34	spilt	spilt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  | now |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **chase** | gerund | the Princess's ladies *not said here* | a spider |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spider=Theme |
| 3 | **knock** | past · perfect · passive |  | one of the Princess's ladies |  |  |  | off the shelf | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Destination flask=Theme |
| 4 | **break** | participle |  | flask |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |
| 5 | **is a** | past · perfect | every drop of the water | spilt |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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