---
title: Now when the youngest prince was thrown down into the lions’ den he… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now when the youngest prince was thrown down into the lions’ den he found the fox sitting there, and the lions, instead of tearing him to pieces, showed him the greatest friendliness. Who acts: prince, fox. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/59/)

<!-- 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 Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/) / 59

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now when the youngest prince was thrown down into the lions’ den he found the fox sitting there, and the lions, instead of tearing him to pieces, showed him the greatest friendliness.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, fox · **What happens:** throw down, find, sit, tear, show · **To what, where:** youngest prince, den, fox, prince, greatest friendliness

<!-- .vabout -->
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, fox), 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:pg5615:15:59
# text = Now when the youngest prince was thrown down into the lions’ den he found the fox sitting there, and the lions, instead of tearing him to pieces, showed him the greatest friendliness.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	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	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	27	mark	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	fixed	_	_
27	tearing	tear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	iobj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	36	amod	_	_
36	friendliness	friendliness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw down** | past · passive |  | the youngest prince |  |  | now | into the lions's den *result*; the lions *obl* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Theme into den=Result |
| 2 | **find** | past | prince | the fox |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fox=Topic |
| 3 | **sit** | gerund | the fox *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tear** | gerund |  | prince |  |  |  | to pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent he=Patient to piece=Result |
| 5 | **show** | past |  | the greatest friendliness | prince |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient friendliness=Topic |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/58/)
- next →: [sentence 60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/60/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/)