---
title: A herald was sent who blew a trumpet at every street corner, and com… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A herald was sent who blew a trumpet at every street corner, and commanded all the best nurses to appear before the Queen, that she might choose one for the little Princess. Who acts: nurse. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 1, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A herald was sent who blew a trumpet at every street corner, and commanded all the best nurses to appear before the Queen, that she might choose one for the little Princess.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** nurse · **What happens:** send, blow, command, appear, choose · **To what, where:** herald, trumpet, street corner, best nurses, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, 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 (nurse), 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:pg540:3:2
# text = A herald was sent who blew a trumpet at every street corner, and commanded all the best nurses to appear before the Queen, that she might choose one for the little Princess.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	herald	herald	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	trumpet	trumpet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
11	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	nurses	nurse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
22	before	before	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	obj	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past · passive |  | a herald |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **blow** | past |  | a trumpet |  | every street corner |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent trumpet=Patient |
| 3 | **command** | past |  | all best nurses |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent nurse=Eventuality |
| 4 | **appear** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | before the Queen |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before queen=Location |
| 5 | **choose** | might | nurse | one |  |  |  | for the little Princess | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent one=Theme for princess=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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