---
title: You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princ… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princess, and puss, as usual, marched in before him, arching his back. Who acts: You, tail, king. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princess, and puss, as usual, marched in before him, arching his back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** You, tail, king · **What happens:** imagine, not be, go, see, march, arch · **To what, where:** puss, Princess, back

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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 (You, tail, king), 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:pg503:3:7
# text = You may imagine that it was not long before he went to see the Princess, and puss, as usual, marched in before him, arching his back.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	puss	puss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	marched	march	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	before	before	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	arching	arch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **imagine** | may | You | puss |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | tail |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | the Princess |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer princess=Stimulus |
| 5 | **march** | participle | You *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in king | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in he=Trajectory |
| 6 | **arch** | gerund | You *not said here* | king's back |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent back=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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