---
title: The young men were really the princes who, to the number of fifty at… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The young men were really the princes who, to the number of fifty at least, had tried to steal the princesses’ secret. Who acts: young men. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, sentence 89

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The young men were really the princes who, to the number of fifty at least, had tried to steal the princesses’ secret.

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**Who acts:** young men · **What happens:** be, try, steal · **To what, where:** princes, secret

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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 (young men), 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:pg540:2:89
# text = The young men were really the princes who, to the number of fifty at least, had tried to steal the princesses’ secret.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	really	really	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the young men | the princes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | past · perfect | the young men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **steal** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the young men *not said here* | the princesses's secret |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location secret=Theme |

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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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