---
title: The other princes and knights were not able even to call to tell him… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The other princes and knights were not able even to call to tell him how useless it was to try to ascend the hill, so amazed were they at sight of his magnificence. Who acts: other princes, armor, princes. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill, with its d
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Princess on the Glass Hill, sentence 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The other princes and knights were not able even to call to tell him how useless it was to try to ascend the hill, so amazed were they at sight of his magnificence.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** other princes, armor, princes · **What happens:** not be, call, tell, be, try, ascend · **To what, where:** knight, hill, princes, sight, magnificence · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (other princes, armor, princes), 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:pg503:48:93
# text = The other princes and knights were not able even to call to tell him how useless it was to try to ascend the hill, so amazed were they at sight of his magnificence.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	even	even	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
16	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	ascend	ascend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	amazed	amazed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	magnificence	magnificence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the other princes and knights |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | to-infinitive | the other princes and knights *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the other princes and knights *not said here* |  | knight |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | armor |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **try** | to-infinitive | armor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **ascend** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | armor *not said here* | the hill |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hill=Trajectory |
| 7 | **be** |  | princes *= prince* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **is a** | past |  | princes *= prince* |  | sight of knight's magnificence |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **sight** |  |  | knight's magnificence |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=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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