---
title: It took a good while for the king to get home again, and he was rath… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It took a good while for the king to get home again, and he was rather cross at having had so much trouble for nothing. Who acts: It, king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/30/11/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 11

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It took a good while for the king to get home again, and he was rather cross at having had so much trouble for nothing.

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**Who acts:** It, king · **What happens:** take, get, be, have · **To what, where:** much trouble

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, king), 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:pg5615:30:11
# text = It took a good while for the king to get home again, and he was rather cross at having had so much trouble for nothing.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
11	home	home	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	again	again	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
19	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	aux	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | It |  |  |  | while | for the king | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for king=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | again | home *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | cross *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | gerund · perfect | king *not said here* | much trouble |  |  |  | for nothing | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trouble=Patient |

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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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