---
title: But when they came before him they found he had been informed of the… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when they came before him they found he had been informed of their arrival by the chief of the Princess’s eunuchs, and by what means the Princess had been perfectly cured. Who acts: women, chief. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribano
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when they came before him they found he had been informed of their arrival by the chief of the Princess’s eunuchs, and by what means the Princess had been perfectly cured.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** women, chief · **What happens:** come, find, inform, mean, cure, arrive · **To what, where:** Prince, Princess · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (women, chief), 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:pg503:50:14
# text = But when they came before him they found he had been informed of their arrival by the chief of the Princess’s eunuchs, and by what means the Princess had been perfectly cured.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	informed	inform	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	arrival	arrival	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	eunuchs	eunuch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj	_	_
28	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	aux:pass	_	_
33	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	cured	cure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  | before Prince |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before he=Location |
| 2 | **find** | past | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **inform** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive | the chief of the Princess's eunuchs | Prince |  |  |  | of women's arrival | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient PP.topic»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient of arrival=Topic |
| 4 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **cure** | past · perfect · passive |  | the Princess |  |  |  | perfectly *property* | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Source |
| 6 | **arrive** |  | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  |  | nom arrival «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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