---
title: At first the King paid no heed to her words, but the old woman harpe… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the King paid no heed to her words, but the old woman harped so long on the subject, and accused the young Queen of so many bad things, that at last he let himself be talked over, and condemned his beautiful wife to death. Who acts: King, old woman, word, Queen. A sentence of «The Red Fairy
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 86

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At first the King paid no heed to her words, but the old woman harped so long on the subject, and accused the young Queen of so many bad things, that at last he let himself be talked over, and condemned his beautiful wife to death.

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**Who acts:** King, old woman, word, Queen · **What happens:** pay, harp, accuse, let, talk over, condemn · **To what, where:** heed, subject, young Queen, word, beautiful wife

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, old woman, word, Queen), 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:pg540:41:86
# text = At first the King paid no heed to her words, but the old woman harped so long on the subject, and accused the young Queen of so many bad things, that at last he let himself be talked over, and condemned his beautiful wife to death.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	paid	pay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	heed	heed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	harped	harp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	accused	accuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	det	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	appos	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	acl:relcl	_	_
39	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	38	obj	_	_
40	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	aux:pass	_	_
41	talked	talk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	xcomp	_	_
42	over	over	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	condemned	condemn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
46	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
47	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	_
49	to	to	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pay** | past | the King | no heed |  |  |  | to Queen's words | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heed=Asset |
| 2 | **harp** | past | the old woman |  |  | the subject |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **accuse** | past | the King *not said here* | the young Queen of many bad things |  |  |  |  | vn suspect-81 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent queen=Theme |
| 4 | **let** | past | word | word |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **talk over** | infinitive · passive | word *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V» |
| 6 | **condemn** | past | the King *not said here* | word's beautiful wife |  |  |  | to death | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Theme |
| 7 | **word** |  | Queen |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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