---
title: While the Princess was dressing the Princes went to throw themselves… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While the Princess was dressing the Princes went to throw themselves at the Sultan their father’s feet, and pay their respects to him. Who acts: Princess, Princes. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2, with its dependency tree 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/13/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fair…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/) / 13

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While the Princess was dressing the Princes went to throw themselves at the Sultan their father’s feet, and pay their respects to him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Princess, Princes · **What happens:** dress, go, throw, pay · **To what, where:** women, Sultan, respects, Prince

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, 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:pg503:50:13
# text = While the Princess was dressing the Princes went to throw themselves at the Sultan their father’s feet, and pay their respects to him.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	dressing	dress	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	respects	respects	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dress** | past · progressive | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **go** | past | the Princes |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **throw** | to-infinitive | the Princes *not said here* | women *= woman* |  | the Sultan |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Destination foot=Theme |
| 4 | **pay** | infinitive | the Princes *not said here* | women's respects | Prince |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent respects=Asset |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/14/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/)