---
title: At first the Princess would not promise, but the nurse showed her so… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the Princess would not promise, but the nurse showed her so many good reasons for it that in the end she agreed to be amiable to her step-mother. Who acts: Princess, nurse. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 1, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first the Princess would not promise, but the nurse showed her so many good reasons for it that in the end she agreed to be amiable to her step-mother.

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**Who acts:** Princess, nurse · **What happens:** not promise, show, agree, be · **To what, where:** many good reasons, Princess, end

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, nurse), 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:pg540:23:47
# text = At first the Princess would not promise, but the nurse showed her so many good reasons for it that in the end she agreed to be amiable to her step-mother.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	promise	promise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	reasons	reason	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
28	amiable	amiable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
31	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **promise** *speech: promise* | would | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **show** | past | the nurse | many good reasons | Princess |  |  | for much | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient reason=Topic |
| 3 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | nurse |  |  |  | in the end |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | nurse *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to Princess's step mother; amiable *property* | 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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