---
title: There they sat down, and when they had sat for a short time the youn… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There they sat down, and when they had sat for a short time the youngest Princess said, ‘I may as well comb your hair a little, Halvor.’ Who acts: Heavens, youngest Princess, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There they sat down, and when they had sat for a short time the youngest Princess said, ‘I may as well comb your hair a little, Halvor.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Heavens, youngest Princess, I · **What happens:** sit down, sit, say, comb · **To what, where:** short time, hair · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Heavens, youngest Princess, I), 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:pg540:6:112
# text = There they sat down, and when they had sat for a short time the youngest Princess said, ‘I may as well comb your hair a little, Halvor.’
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	sat	sit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	amod	_	_
17	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	25	cc	_	_
24	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	fixed	_	_
25	comb	comb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
26	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	Halvor	Halvor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | Heavens *= heaven* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sit** | past · perfect | Heavens *= heaven* |  |  |  | time |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the youngest Princess | a short time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **comb** | may | I | your hair |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked*; Halvor *obl* | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Patient |

<!-- .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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