---
title: His ring pricked him very often, and sometimes he left off what he w… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His ring pricked him very often, and sometimes he left off what he was doing at once; but at other times he would not attend to it. Who acts: ring, 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 53

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His ring pricked him very often, and sometimes he left off what he was doing at once; but at other times he would not attend to it.

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**Who acts:** ring, prince · **What happens:** prick, leave off, do, not attend · **To what, where:** prince, ring

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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 (ring, 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:pg503:39:53
# text = His ring pricked him very often, and sometimes he left off what he was doing at once; but at other times he would not attend to it.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pricked	prick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	11	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	obj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prick** | past | prince's ring | prince |  |  |  | often *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Patient |
| 2 | **leave off** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | past · progressive | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **attend** | would | prince |  | ring |  | time |  | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent to it=Theme |

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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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