---
title: The fact was he had been brought up by a foolish nurse, who had spoi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fact was he had been brought up by a foolish nurse, who had spoiled him when he was little. Who acts: foolish nurse, prince. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 48

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The fact was he had been brought up by a foolish nurse, who had spoiled him when he was little.

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**Who acts:** foolish nurse, prince · **What happens:** bring up, spoil, be · **To what, where:** fact, prince

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (foolish nurse, prince), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg503:39:48
# text = The fact was he had been brought up by a foolish nurse, who had spoiled him when he was little.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	spoiled	spoil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring up** | past · perfect · passive | a foolish nurse | the fact |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 2 | **spoil** | past · perfect | a foolish nurse | prince |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | little *property* | tree rules |

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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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