---
title: She put on her spectacles to look at Prince Hyacinth, but it was qui… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She put on her spectacles to look at Prince Hyacinth, but it was quite a long time before she could fix them securely because her nose was so very short. Who acts: woman, horse, nose. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dependenc
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She put on her spectacles to look at Prince Hyacinth, but it was quite a long time before she could fix them securely because her nose was so very short.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** woman, horse, nose · **What happens:** put, look, be, fix · **To what, where:** spectacles, long time

<!-- .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 (woman, horse, nose), 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:pg503:3:36
# text = She put on her spectacles to look at Prince Hyacinth, but it was quite a long time before she could fix them securely because her nose was so very short.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	spectacles	spectacle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	Hyacinth	Hyacinth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	18	det:predet	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	fix	fix	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	securely	securely	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
25	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	very	very	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | past | woman |  |  | woman's spectacles |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on spectacle=Destination |
| 2 | **look** | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at Prince Hyacinth | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at hyacinth=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | horse | quite long time |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fix** | could | woman | spectacles *= spectacle* |  |  |  | securely *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | woman's nose |  |  |  |  | short *property* | 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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