---
title: It was whispered about that they led exactly the lives that princess… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was whispered about that they led exactly the lives that princesses ought to lead, sleeping far into the morning, and never getting up till mid-day. Who acts: mattresses, princesses. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was whispered about that they led exactly the lives that princesses ought to lead, sleeping far into the morning, and never getting up till mid-day.

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**Who acts:** mattresses, princesses · **What happens:** whisper, lead, sleep, not get up · **To what, where:** bundle, lives

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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 (mattresses, princesses), 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:pg540:2:24
# text = It was whispered about that they led exactly the lives that princesses ought to lead, sleeping far into the morning, and never getting up till mid-day.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	3	obl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	obj	_	_
12	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
13	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	lead	lead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
18	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	till	till	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	mid-day	mid-day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | bundle |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **lead** | past | mattresses *= mattress* | the lives |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 3 | **lead** | ought | princesses | the lives |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 4 | **sleep** | gerund | mattresses *= mattress* *not said here* |  |  |  | morning | far *property* | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **get up** | gerund |  |  |  |  | till mid-day |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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