---
title: So the girl was fetched, and the Prince was just going to hand the o… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the girl was fetched, and the Prince was just going to hand the ornaments to her, when the witch held him back, saying: Who acts: Prince, witch. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/14/114/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Wonderful Birch](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/14/) / 114

# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 114

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the girl was fetched, and the Prince was just going to hand the ornaments to her, when the witch held him back, saying:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, witch · **What happens:** fetch, go, hand, hold back, say · **To what, where:** girl, ornaments, Prince · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, witch), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg540:14:114
# text = So the girl was fetched, and the Prince was just going to hand the ornaments to her, when the witch held him back, saying:
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	fetched	fetch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	just	just	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	hand	hand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	ornaments	ornament	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	23	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fetch** | past · passive |  | the girl |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past · progressive | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hand** | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* | the ornaments | girl |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ornament=Theme to she=Destination |
| 4 | **hold back** | past | the witch | Prince |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/14/113/)
- next →: [sentence 115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/14/115/)
- ↑ back to [The Wonderful Birch](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/14/)