---
title: So the King asked her again what was the matter, and this time she a… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the King asked her again what was the matter, and this time she answered that in eating her porridge too hastily she had swallowed her wedding-ring. Who acts: King, Queen. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Princess Rosette, sentence 18

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So the King asked her again what was the matter, and this time she answered that in eating her porridge too hastily she had swallowed her wedding-ring.

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**Who acts:** King, Queen · **What happens:** ask, answer, eat, swallow · **To what, where:** Queen, porridge, wedding ring · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, Queen), 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:pg540:11:18
# text = So the King asked her again what was the matter, and this time she answered that in eating her porridge too hastily she had swallowed her wedding-ring.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
18	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	porridge	porridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	too	too	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	hastily	hastily	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	ccomp	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
28	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the King |  | Queen |  | again |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Queen |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **eat** | gerund | Queen *not said here* | Queen's porridge |  |  |  | hastily *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent porridge=Patient |
| 4 | **swallow** | past · perfect | Queen | Queen's wedding ring |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=Patient |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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