---
title: Prince Ahmed never expected that the Sultan his father would have as… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Prince Ahmed never expected that the Sultan his father would have asked such a thing, which at first appeared so difficult, not to say impossible. Who acts: Prince, Sultan. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4, with its depende
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Prince Ahmed never expected that the Sultan his father would have asked such a thing, which at first appeared so difficult, not to say impossible.

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**Who acts:** Prince, Sultan · **What happens:** not expect, ask, appear, not say · **To what, where:** thing, impossible · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, Sultan), 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:pg503:52:20
# text = Prince Ahmed never expected that the Sultan his father would have asked such a thing, which at first appeared so difficult, not to say impossible.
1	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	Ahmed	Ahmed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	expected	expect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	_
13	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	15	det:predet	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
18	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	20	advmod	_	_
20	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
27	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **expect** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | would · perfect | the Sultan | such thing |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thing=Recipient |
| 3 | **appear** | past |  | such thing |  |  |  | difficult, first *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location which=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  | impossible |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent impossible=Topic |

<!-- .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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