---
title: The Prince was distracted, for he fancied he heard his dear shepherd… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Prince was distracted, for he fancied he heard his dear shepherdess weeping and begging him to save her. Who acts: Prince. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Branch, part 3, sentence 41

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The Prince was distracted, for he fancied he heard his dear shepherdess weeping and begging him to save her.

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**Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** distract, fancy, hear, beg, save, weep · **To what, where:** Prince, dear shepherdess weeping, Fairy

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince), 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:pg540:36:41
# text = The Prince was distracted, for he fancied he heard his dear shepherdess weeping and begging him to save her.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	distracted	distract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
12	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	shepherdess	shepherdess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
16	begging	beg	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **distract** | past · passive |  | the Prince |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **fancy** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hear** | past | Prince | Prince's dear shepherdess weeping |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer weeping=Stimulus |
| 4 | **beg** *speech: request* | gerund | Prince *not said here* |  | Prince |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **save** | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* | Fairy |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 6 | **weep** |  | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom weeping «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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