---
title: The prince answered that his errand was too important to be confided… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince answered that his errand was too important to be confided to everyone that he met. Who acts: prince, errand. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 2

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The prince answered that his errand was too important to be confided to everyone that he met.

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**Who acts:** prince, errand · **What happens:** answer, be, confide, meet · **To what, where:** everyone · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, errand), 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:pg5615:15:2
# text = The prince answered that his errand was too important to be confided to everyone that he met.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	confided	confide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	csubj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	12	obl	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | prince's errand |  |  |  |  | important *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **confide** *speech: other* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  | everyone |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: to everyone=Recipient |
| 4 | **meet** | past | errand |  |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 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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