---
title: While she was speaking Michael managed to slip in front, and running… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While she was speaking Michael managed to slip in front, and running up the staircase, he reached the princesses’ room first. Who acts: Lina, Michael. 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 99

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While she was speaking Michael managed to slip in front, and running up the staircase, he reached the princesses’ room first.

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**Who acts:** Lina, Michael · **What happens:** speak, manage, slip, run up, reach · **To what, where:** staircase, room · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Lina, Michael), 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:pg540:2:99
# text = While she was speaking Michael managed to slip in front, and running up the staircase, he reached the princesses’ room first.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
5	Michael	Michael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	slip	slip	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	staircase	staircase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · progressive | Lina |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **manage** | past | Michael |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **slip** | to-infinitive | Michael *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in front | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in front=Attribute |
| 4 | **run up** | gerund | Michael *not said here* | the staircase |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme staircase=Trajectory |
| 5 | **reach** | past | Michael | the princesses's room |  |  |  | first *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent room=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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