---
title: The poor Queen held her little daughter safe in her arms and shrieke… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor Queen held her little daughter safe in her arms and shrieked for mercy, but the wicked King only mocked her, and begged her to go on shrieking, as it amused him, and so mounted his great black horse, and rode back to his own country. Who acts: poor Queen, wicked King, mercy. A sentence of «
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Little Good Mouse, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor Queen held her little daughter safe in her arms and shrieked for mercy, but the wicked King only mocked her, and begged her to go on shrieking, as it amused him, and so mounted his great black horse, and rode back to his own country.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor Queen, wicked King, mercy · **What happens:** hold, shriek, mock, beg, go, amuse · **To what, where:** little daughter, Queen, head, great black horse, own country

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (poor Queen, wicked King, mercy), 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:pg540:22:26
# text = The poor Queen held her little daughter safe in her arms and shrieked for mercy, but the wicked King only mocked her, and begged her to go on shrieking, as it amused him, and so mounted his great black horse, and rode back to his own country.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	shrieked	shriek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	mocked	mock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
30	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	shrieking	shriek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	amused	amuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	so	so	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	mounted	mount	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
42	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
43	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	conj	_	_
48	back	back	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
49	to	to	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
51	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | the poor Queen | Queen's little daughter |  |  |  | safe *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme |
| 2 | **shriek** | past | the poor Queen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for mercy | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for mercy=Recipient |
| 3 | **mock** | past | the wicked King | Queen |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the wicked King *not said here* |  | Queen |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the wicked King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **shriek** | gerund | the wicked King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **amuse** | past | mercy | head |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 8 | **mount** | past | mercy *not said here* | head's great black horse |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 9 | **ride back** | past | mercy *not said here* |  |  | head's own country |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent to country=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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