---
title: They took out of them the most magnificent dresses, which they put o… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They took out of them the most magnificent dresses, which they put on before their mirrors, and when they had finished, turned themselves all round to admire their appearances. Who acts: princesses, magnificent dresses. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Princesses
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They took out of them the most magnificent dresses, which they put on before their mirrors, and when they had finished, turned themselves all round to admire their appearances.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princesses, magnificent dresses · **What happens:** take out, put on, finish, turn, admire · **To what, where:** boxes, mirrors, princesses, appearances

<!-- .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, magnificent dresses), 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:pg540:2:54
# text = They took out of them the most magnificent dresses, which they put on before their mirrors, and when they had finished, turned themselves all round to admire their appearances.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	8	advmod	_	_
8	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj:outer	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	mirrors	mirror	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	all	all	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	round	round	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	admire	admire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	appearances	appearance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take out** | past | princesses *= princess* | boxes *= box* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **put on** | past | the magnificent dresses |  |  | princesses's mirrors |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent before mirror=Destination |
| 3 | **finish** | past · perfect | princesses *= princess* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **turn** | past | princesses *= princess* *not said here* | princesses *= princess* |  |  |  | round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |
| 5 | **admire** | to-infinitive | princesses *= princess* *not said here* | princesses's appearances |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer appearance=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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