---
title: ‘Alas!’ said the Princess, ‘if only I could find something for you t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Alas!’ said the Princess, ‘if only I could find something for you to eat, I should not mind being hungry myself.’ Who acts: Princess, I, you. 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 84

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‘Alas!’ said the Princess, ‘if only I could find something for you to eat, I should not mind being hungry myself.’

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**Who acts:** Princess, I, you · **What happens:** say, find, eat, not mind, be · **To what, where:** something · **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 (Princess, I, you), 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:pg540:4:84
# text = ‘Alas!’ said the Princess, ‘if only I could find something for you to eat, I should not mind being hungry myself.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	14	obj	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
25	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	cop	_	_
26	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
27	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	26	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **find** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | I | something |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Topic |
| 3 | **eat** | to-infinitive | you | something *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **mind** | should | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | myself *obl:unmarked*; hungry *property* | tree rules |

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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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