---
title: ‘The King’s daughter was long ago promised away to three Trolls, and… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘The King’s daughter was long ago promised away to three Trolls, and next Thursday evening one of them is to come to fetch her. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/45/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [Mother Holle, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/45/) / 3

# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 2, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘The King’s daughter was long ago promised away to three Trolls, and next Thursday evening one of them is to come to fetch her.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** promise, be, fetch · **To what, where:** daughter

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg540:45:3
# text = ‘The King’s daughter was long ago promised away to three Trolls, and next Thursday evening one of them is to come to fetch her.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
8	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	Trolls	troll	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
16	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	Thursday	Thursday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	flat	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · passive |  | the King's daughter |  |  |  | ago, away *property* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  | evening | come *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **fetch** | to-infinitive |  | daughter |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/45/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/45/4/)
- ↑ back to [Mother Holle, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/45/)