---
title: The King sent her a letter every day, but at last, one morning, as s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King sent her a letter every day, but at last, one morning, as she looked out of the palace window, she saw a messenger approaching in hot haste. Who acts: King, Queen, messenger. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Good Mouse, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Little Good Mouse, sentence 18

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The King sent her a letter every day, but at last, one morning, as she looked out of the palace window, she saw a messenger approaching in hot haste.

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**Who acts:** King, Queen, messenger · **What happens:** send, look out, see, approach · **To what, where:** letter, Queen, palace window, messenger, hot haste

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Good Mouse. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, Queen, messenger), 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:pg540:22:18
# text = The King sent her a letter every day, but at last, one morning, as she looked out of the palace window, she saw a messenger approaching in hot haste.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | the King | a letter | Queen |  | day; morning |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Destination letter=Theme |
| 2 | **look out** | past | Queen | the palace window |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | past | Queen | a messenger |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer messenger=Stimulus |
| 4 | **approach** | gerund | a messenger *not said here* |  |  | hot haste |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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