---
title: They watched all night behind the open door of the princesses, but w… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They watched all night behind the open door of the princesses, but when the morning came they had all disappeared, and no one could tell what had become of them. Who acts: princesses, morning, one. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with its dependency 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They watched all night behind the open door of the princesses, but when the morning came they had all disappeared, and no one could tell what had become of them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princesses, morning, one · **What happens:** watch, come, have, tell, become · **To what, where:** open door · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, morning, one), 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:pg540:2:29
# text = They watched all night behind the open door of the princesses, but when the morning came they had all disappeared, and no one could tell what had become of them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	det	_	_
4	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	disappeared	disappeared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
28	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	ccomp	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past | princesses *= princess* |  |  | the open door of the princesses | night |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind door=Location |
| 2 | **come** | past | the morning |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | princesses *= princess* |  |  |  |  | disappeared *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | no one |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **become** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | of princesses *= princess* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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