---
title: Now the Princesses were curious to know what was written in the book… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the Princesses were curious to know what was written in the book, especially the eldest, and this is what she read: Who acts: Princesses, this, Princess. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/12/29/)

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 29

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Now the Princesses were curious to know what was written in the book, especially the eldest, and this is what she read:

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**Who acts:** Princesses, this, Princess · **What happens:** be, know, write, read · **To what, where:** book · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princesses, this, Princess), 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:pg540:12:29
# text = Now the Princesses were curious to know what was written in the book, especially the eldest, and this is what she read:
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Princesses	Princess	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	csubj	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obl	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Princesses |  |  |  | now | curious *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **write** | past · passive |  |  |  | the book |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in book=Destination |
| 4 | **is a** | present | this |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **read** | past | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: 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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