---
title: Her servants had orders to drive him away as often as he appeared; b… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Her servants had orders to drive him away as often as he appeared; but as they were careless, and the serpent very sly, it sometimes happened that he was able to slip past them, and to frighten the princess by appearing before her. Who acts: servants, orders, servant, it. A sentence of «The Pink Fai
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 52

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Her servants had orders to drive him away as often as he appeared; but as they were careless, and the serpent very sly, it sometimes happened that he was able to slip past them, and to frighten the princess by appearing before her.

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**Who acts:** servants, orders, servant, it · **What happens:** have, drive away, appear, be, happen, slip · **To what, where:** orders, servant, princess

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants, orders, servant, it), 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:pg5615:1:52
# text = Her servants had orders to drive him away as often as he appeared; but as they were careless, and the serpent very sly, it sometimes happened that he was able to slip past them, and to frighten the princess by appearing before her.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	away	away	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	often	often	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	sly	sly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	29	advmod	_	_
29	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advcl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	slip	slip	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	past	past	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	frighten	frighten	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	29	parataxis	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
45	appearing	appear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	41	advcl	_	_
46	before	before	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Princess's servants | orders |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **drive away** | to-infinitive | orders *not said here* | servant |  |  |  | away, often *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **appear** | past | servant |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | orders *= order* |  |  |  |  | careless *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past | servant |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **slip** | to-infinitive | servant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | past orders *= order* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 8 | **frighten** | to-infinitive |  | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus princess=Experiencer |
| 9 | **appear** | gerund |  |  |  |  | before Princess |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before she=Location |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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