---
title: The wicked Queen was standing all this time on the tower, and, heari… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The wicked Queen was standing all this time on the tower, and, hearing the bells ringing at a great distance off, knew very well it was the princes coming home, and the steed with them, and through spite and vexation precipitated herself from the tower and was shattered to pieces. Who acts: wicked Q
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/142/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/) / 142

# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 142

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The wicked Queen was standing all this time on the tower, and, hearing the bells ringing at a great distance off, knew very well it was the princes coming home, and the steed with them, and through spite and vexation precipitated herself from the tower and was shattered to pieces.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wicked Queen, bells, distance, princes · **What happens:** stand, hear, ring off, know, be, come · **To what, where:** tower, bells, princes, Queen, spite · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wicked Queen, bells, distance, princes), 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:pg540:8:142
# text = The wicked Queen was standing all this time on the tower, and, hearing the bells ringing at a great distance off, knew very well it was the princes coming home, and the steed with them, and through spite and vexation precipitated herself from the tower and was shattered to pieces.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	ccomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	ringing	ring	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
25	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
32	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	acl	_	_
33	home	home	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	steed	steed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
42	through	through	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	vexation	vexation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	conj	_	_
46	precipitated	precipitate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	parataxis	_	_
47	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	46	obj	_	_
48	from	from	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	aux:pass	_	_
53	shattered	shatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	conj	_	_
54	to	to	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
55	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | the wicked Queen |  |  | the tower | time |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on tower=Location |
| 2 | **hear** | gerund |  | the bells |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer bell=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ring off** | gerund | the bells *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at a great distance | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at distance=Location |
| 4 | **know** | past | the wicked Queen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is a** | past | distance | the princes and the steed with Princes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **come** | gerund | the princes and the steed with Princes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **precipitate** | participle |  | Queen |  | spite and vexation |  | from the tower | tree rules |
| 8 | **shatter** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | to pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: to piece=Result |

<!-- .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 141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/141/)
- next →: [sentence 143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/143/)
- ↑ back to [The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/)