---
title: He gave his arm to the eldest sister, danced with each in turn, and… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He gave his arm to the eldest sister, danced with each in turn, and was so graceful that everyone was delighted with him. Who acts: Michael, everyone. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 171

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He gave his arm to the eldest sister, danced with each in turn, and was so graceful that everyone was delighted with him.

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**Who acts:** Michael, everyone · **What happens:** give, dance, be · **To what, where:** arm, eldest sister, turn

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Michael, everyone), 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:pg540:2:171
# text = He gave his arm to the eldest sister, danced with each in turn, and was so graceful that everyone was delighted with him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	amod	_	_
8	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	danced	dance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	obl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	graceful	graceful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	advcl	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | Michael | Michael's arm | the eldest sister |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent arm=Theme to sister=Recipient |
| 2 | **dance** | participle |  | the eldest sister *not said here* |  | turn |  | with each | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in turn=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | graceful *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | everyone |  |  |  |  | with Michael; delighted *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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