---
title: The Ambassador thought he must be dreaming, and could hardly believe… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Ambassador thought he must be dreaming, and could hardly believe what the lovely Princess said. Who acts: Ambassador, lovely Princess. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, sentence 6

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The Ambassador thought he must be dreaming, and could hardly believe what the lovely Princess said.

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**Who acts:** Ambassador, lovely Princess · **What happens:** think, dream, believe, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ambassador, lovely Princess), 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:pg540:4:6
# text = The Ambassador thought he must be dreaming, and could hardly believe what the lovely Princess said.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Ambassador	Ambassador	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	dreaming	dream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	believe	believe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the Ambassador |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **dream** | must · progressive | Ambassador |  |  |  |  |  | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **believe** | could |  |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the lovely Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

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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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