---
title: ‘This is a dismal kind of wedding,’ they said; ‘what can have happen… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘This is a dismal kind of wedding,’ they said; ‘what can have happened that we should be treated like this? Who acts: This, soldiers. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Princess Rosette, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Princess Rosette, sentence 188

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‘This is a dismal kind of wedding,’ they said; ‘what can have happened that we should be treated like this?

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**Who acts:** This, soldiers · **What happens:** be, say, happen, treat · **To what, where:** dismal kind, we · **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 (This, soldiers), 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:pg540:11:188
# text = ‘This is a dismal kind of wedding,’ they said; ‘what can have happened that we should be treated like this?
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	dismal	dismal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	nsubj	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	treated	treat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
24	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | This | a dismal kind |  |  |  | of wedding | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | soldiers *= soldier* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | can · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **treat** | should · passive |  | we |  |  |  | like this | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

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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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