---
title: Just at this lucky moment who should arrive but King Merlin’s son, w… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just at this lucky moment who should arrive but King Merlin’s son, who had become uneasy at not receiving any news from his Ambassador, and so had started himself with a magnificent escort of a thousand horsemen, and thirty body-guards in gold and scarlet uniforms, to see what could have happened. W
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 3, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just at this lucky moment who should arrive but King Merlin’s son, who had become uneasy at not receiving any news from his Ambassador, and so had started himself with a magnificent escort of a thousand horsemen, and thirty body-guards in gold and scarlet uniforms, to see what could have happened.

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** arrive, become, not receive, start, see, happen · **To what, where:** news, Ambassador, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, 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 (son), 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:pg540:5:36
# text = Just at this lucky moment who should arrive but King Merlin’s son, who had become uneasy at not receiving any news from his Ambassador, and so had started himself with a magnificent escort of a thousand horsemen, and thirty body-guards in gold and scarlet uniforms, to see what could have happened.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
4	lucky	lucky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	arrive	arrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	_
11	Merlin	Merlin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
13	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
18	uneasy	uneasy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	receiving	receive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
22	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	Ambassador	Ambassador	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	started	start	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
32	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	31	obj	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	escort	escort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	40	nummod	_	_
40	horsemen	horseman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
43	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	46	nummod	_	_
44	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
50	scarlet	scarlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	compound	_	_
51	uniforms	uniform	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
55	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	58	nsubj	_	_
56	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
57	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	aux	_	_
58	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	54	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | should |  |  |  |  | moment |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past · perfect | King's son |  |  |  |  | uneasy *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **receive** | gerund | King's son *not said here* | any news |  | son's Ambassador |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent news=Theme from ambassador=Source |
| 4 | **start** | past · perfect |  | son |  |  |  | with a magnificent escort of thousand horsemen; thirty body guards in gold and scarlet uniforms *obl* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.subeventuality»: agent=Agent himself=Eventuality with escort=Subeventuality |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **happen** | could · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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