---
title: When he grew sensible he learned history; and whenever any great pri… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he grew sensible he learned history; and whenever any great prince or beautiful princess was spoken of, his teachers took care to tell him that they had long noses. Who acts: Prince, teachers. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he grew sensible he learned history; and whenever any great prince or beautiful princess was spoken of, his teachers took care to tell him that they had long noses.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, teachers · **What happens:** grow, learn, speak, take, tell, have · **To what, where:** history, great prince, care, Prince, long noses · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, teachers), 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:pg503:3:25
# text = When he grew sensible he learned history; and whenever any great prince or beautiful princess was spoken of, his teachers took care to tell him that they had long noses.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	sensible	sensible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	learned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
10	whenever	whenever	SCONJ	WRB	_	18	mark	_	_
11	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	det	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	teachers	teacher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
24	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
31	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | sensible *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **learn** | past | Prince | history |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent history=Topic |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | any great prince or beautiful princess |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **take** | past | Prince's teachers | care |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | Prince's teachers *not said here* |  | Prince |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **have** | past | teachers *= teacher* | long noses |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=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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