---
title: It was on a Monday morning that he set out all alone upon his errand… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was on a Monday morning that he set out all alone upon his errand, thinking of nothing but how he could persuade the Princess Goldilocks to marry the King. Who acts: bade, king. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was on a Monday morning that he set out all alone upon his errand, thinking of nothing but how he could persuade the Princess Goldilocks to marry the King.

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**Who acts:** bade, king · **What happens:** be, set out, think, persuade, marry · **To what, where:** Princess Goldilocks, King

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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 (bade, king), 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:pg503:28:43
# text = It was on a Monday morning that he set out all alone upon his errand, thinking of nothing but how he could persuade the Princess Goldilocks to marry the King.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Monday	Monday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	all	all	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	obl	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	Goldilocks	Goldilocks	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | bade |  |  |  | on a Monday morning |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **set out** | past | king |  |  |  |  | upon king's errand; alone *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of nothing | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **persuade** | could | king | the Princess Goldilocks |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goldilocks=Patient |
| 5 | **marry** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | the King |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Patient |

<!-- .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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