---
title: And so it went on for eight days, till the King began to think that… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And so it went on for eight days, till the King began to think that this fatal tail must be full of quicksilver--it was never still for a moment. Who acts: tail, King, fatal tail. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And so it went on for eight days, till the King began to think that this fatal tail must be full of quicksilver--it was never still for a moment.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tail, King, fatal tail · **What happens:** go on, begin, think, be · **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 (tail, King, fatal tail), 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:pg503:3:9
# text = And so it went on for eight days, till the King began to think that this fatal tail must be full of quicksilver--it was never still for a moment.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
18	fatal	fatal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
22	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	quicksilver	quicksilver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
28	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	still	still	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past | tail |  |  |  | day |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the King |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | must | this fatal tail |  |  |  |  | of quicksilver; full *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | tail |  |  |  | for a moment; still |  | 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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