---
title: He fought against it hard, knowing how it would grieve the princess,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He fought against it hard, knowing how it would grieve the princess, but it grew on him stronger and stronger, till at length he became so sad that the princess inquired what was wrong. Who acts: life, longing, princess. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 3
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 3, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He fought against it hard, knowing how it would grieve the princess, but it grew on him stronger and stronger, till at length he became so sad that the princess inquired what was wrong.

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**Who acts:** life, longing, princess · **What happens:** fight, know, grieve, grow, become, inquire · **To what, where:** princess, length · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (life, longing, princess), 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:pg5615:3:87
# text = He fought against it hard, knowing how it would grieve the princess, but it grew on him stronger and stronger, till at length he became so sad that the princess inquired what was wrong.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	against	against	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
8	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	grieve	grieve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	xcomp	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
35	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	37	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
37	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past | life |  |  |  |  | against longing; hard *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **know** | gerund | life *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **grieve** | would | longing | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus princess=Experiencer |
| 4 | **grow** | past | longing |  |  |  |  | on life; strong *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on he=Location |
| 5 | **become** | past | life |  |  | length |  | sad *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | the princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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