---
title: At first when he saw them coming he was vexed, for he was not fond o… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first when he saw them coming he was vexed, for he was not fond of ladies; but when he recognised the Queen, he said: Who acts: hermit, horses. 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 29

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At first when he saw them coming he was vexed, for he was not fond of ladies; but when he recognised the Queen, he said:

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**Who acts:** hermit, horses · **What happens:** see, come, vex, not be, recognise, say · **To what, where:** horses, hermit, Queen · **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 (hermit, horses), 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:pg540:11:29
# text = At first when he saw them coming he was vexed, for he was not fond of ladies; but when he recognised the Queen, he said:
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	vexed	vex	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	recognised	recognise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | hermit | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | gerund | horses *= horse* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **vex** | past · passive |  | hermit |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past | hermit |  |  |  |  | of ladies; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **recognise** | past | hermit | the Queen |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer queen=Stimulus |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | hermit |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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 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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