---
title: Meanwhile, the ambassador arrived at the Princess’s palace and deliv… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Meanwhile, the ambassador arrived at the Princess’s palace and delivered his little message, but whether she happened to be cross that day, or whether the compliment did not please her, is not known. Who acts: ambassador, princess, compliment. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Meanwhile, the ambassador arrived at the Princess’s palace and delivered his little message, but whether she happened to be cross that day, or whether the compliment did not please her, is not known.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ambassador, princess, compliment · **What happens:** arrive, deliver, happen, be, not please, not know · **To what, where:** palace, little message, princess

<!-- .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 (ambassador, princess, compliment), 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:pg503:28:9
# text = Meanwhile, the ambassador arrived at the Princess’s palace and delivered his little message, but whether she happened to be cross that day, or whether the compliment did not please her, is not known.
1	Meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ambassador	ambassador	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	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	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	delivered	deliver	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	message	message	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
23	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
24	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
28	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	compliment	compliment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
31	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux:pass	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | past | the ambassador |  |  | the Princess's palace |  | meanwhile *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **deliver** | past | the ambassador *not said here* | ambassador's little message |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent message=Patient |
| 3 | **happen** | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  |  | day | cross *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **please** | past · do-support | the compliment | princess |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 6 | **not** **know** | present · passive | the compliment *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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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