---
title: For he knew that the elder Princess was the stronger, so he could ve… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For he knew that the elder Princess was the stronger, so he could very well guess how things would go. Who acts: Minnikin, elder Princess, things. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 3, sentence 63

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For he knew that the elder Princess was the stronger, so he could very well guess how things would go.

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**Who acts:** Minnikin, elder Princess, things · **What happens:** know, be, guess, go · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, 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 (Minnikin, elder Princess, things), 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:pg540:46:63
# text = For he knew that the elder Princess was the stronger, so he could very well guess how things would go.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
17	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | Minnikin |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | the elder Princess |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **guess** | could | Minnikin |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** | would | things |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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