--- title: When they were asked what they had been doing all night, they always… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: When they were asked what they had been doing all night, they always answered that they had been asleep; and, indeed, no noise was ever heard in the room, yet the shoes could not wear themselves out alone! Who acts: princesses, shoes. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dan --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/2/26/) [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 Twelve Dancing Princesses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/2/) / 26 # The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 26 When they were asked what they had been doing all night, they always answered that they had been asleep; and, indeed, no noise was ever heard in the room, yet the shoes could not wear themselves out alone! **Who acts:** princesses, shoes · **What happens:** ask, do, answer, be, hear, not wear out · **To what, where:** princesses, noise, room · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (princesses, shoes), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg540:2:26 # text = When they were asked what they had been doing all night, they always answered that they had been asleep; and, indeed, no noise was ever heard in the room, yet the shoes could not wear themselves out alone! 1 When when ADV WRB PronType=Int 4 advmod _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 aux:pass _ _ 4 asked ask VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 5 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 9 obj _ _ 6 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 7 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 9 aux _ _ 8 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 9 aux _ _ 9 doing do VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 4 ccomp _ _ 10 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 11 det _ _ 11 night night NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl:unmarked _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 13 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 14 always always ADV RB PronType=Tot 15 advmod _ _ 15 answered answer VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ _ 16 that that SCONJ IN _ 20 mark _ _ 17 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 18 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 aux _ _ 19 been be AUX VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 20 cop _ _ 20 asleep asleep ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 21 ; ; PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 24 indeed indeed ADV RB _ 30 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 26 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 27 det _ _ 27 noise noise NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nsubj _ _ 28 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 30 aux:pass _ _ 29 ever ever ADV RB PronType=Ind 30 advmod _ _ 30 heard hear VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 4 parataxis _ _ 31 in in ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 room room NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 35 yet yet CCONJ CC _ 40 cc _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 37 shoes shoe NOUN NNS Number=Plur 40 nsubj _ _ 38 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 40 aux _ _ 39 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 40 advmod _ _ 40 wear wear VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 30 conj _ _ 41 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 40 obj _ _ 42 out out ADP RP _ 40 compound:prt _ _ 43 alone alone ADV RB _ 40 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 44 ! ! PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past · passive | | princesses *= princess* | | | | | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic | | 2 | **do** | past · perfect · progressive | princesses *= princess* | | | | night | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | | 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | princesses *= princess* | | | | | always *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **is** | past · perfect | princesses *= princess* | | | | | asleep *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **hear** | past · passive | | no noise | | the room | ever | indeed *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus | | 6 | **not** **wear out** | could | the shoes | princesses *= princess* | | | | alone *property* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent themselves=Source | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/2/25/) - next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/2/27/) - ↑ back to [The Twelve Dancing Princesses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/2/)