---
title: The servant set out at once on his journey, and sought high and low-… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The servant set out at once on his journey, and sought high and low-in castles and cottages; but though pretty maidens were plentiful as blackberries, he felt sure that none of them would please the king. Who acts: servant, pretty maidens, maiden, none. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 6

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The servant set out at once on his journey, and sought high and low-in castles and cottages; but though pretty maidens were plentiful as blackberries, he felt sure that none of them would please the king.

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**Who acts:** servant, pretty maidens, maiden, none · **What happens:** set out, seek, be, feel, please, journey · **To what, where:** journey, castles, king

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant, pretty maidens, maiden, none), 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:pg5615:18:6
# text = The servant set out at once on his journey, and sought high and low-in castles and cottages; but though pretty maidens were plentiful as blackberries, he felt sure that none of them would please the king.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	obl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	castles	castle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	cottages	cottage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	though	though	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
24	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	plentiful	plentiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	blackberries	blackberry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
33	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
35	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	39	nsubj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nmod	_	_
38	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	please	please	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set out** | past | the servant |  |  | servant's journey |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **seek** | past | the servant *not said here* |  |  | castles and cottages |  | high *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in castle=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | pretty maidens |  |  |  |  | as blackberries; plentiful, though *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **feel** | past | maiden |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **please** | would | none | the king |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus king=Experiencer |
| 6 | **journey** |  | servant |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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