---
title: Never were so many beautiful princesses seen together at one time, b… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Never were so many beautiful princesses seen together at one time, but the one whom the cow-boy thought the most beautiful and the most fascinating was the little Princess with the velvet eyes. Who acts: cow boy, beautiful. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Prince
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Never were so many beautiful princesses seen together at one time, but the one whom the cow-boy thought the most beautiful and the most fascinating was the little Princess with the velvet eyes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cow boy, beautiful · **What happens:** not be, see, think, be · **To what, where:** many beautiful princesses, one, little Princess · **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 (cow boy, beautiful), 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:pg540:2:85
# text = Never were so many beautiful princesses seen together at one time, but the one whom the cow-boy thought the most beautiful and the most fascinating was the little Princess with the velvet eyes.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
7	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	together	together	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
16	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	24	advmod	_	_
24	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	nsubj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	28	advmod	_	_
28	fascinating	fascinating	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	ccomp	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	velvet	velvet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past |  | many beautiful princesses |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | participle |  | many beautiful princesses *not said here* |  |  | time | together *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the cow boy | the one |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot whom=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the beautiful | the little Princess |  |  |  | with the velvet eyes | 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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