---
title: At last, in despair, the prince sought out the old woman, to try to… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last, in despair, the prince sought out the old woman, to try to get some advice from her as to his conduct, or, anyway, to have the pleasure of talking about Minon-Minette. Who acts: prince, pleasure, king. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, with it
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 56

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At last, in despair, the prince sought out the old woman, to try to get some advice from her as to his conduct, or, anyway, to have the pleasure of talking about Minon-Minette.

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**Who acts:** prince, pleasure, king · **What happens:** seek out, try, get, have, talk, conduct · **To what, where:** old woman, last despair, advice, pleasure

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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 (prince, pleasure, 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:pg5615:30:56
# text = At last, in despair, the prince sought out the old woman, to try to get some advice from her as to his conduct, or, anyway, to have the pleasure of talking about Minon-Minette.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	try	try	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	26	case	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	conduct	conduct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	anyway	anyway	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
37	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	acl	_	_
38	about	about	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	Minon	Minon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	Minette	Minette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek out** | past | the prince | the old woman |  | last despair |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent woman=Theme at despair=Location |
| 2 | **try** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | some advice |  |  |  | from woman; as king's conduct | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer advice=Stimulus as conduct=Attribute |
| 4 | **have** | to-infinitive | the prince *not said here* | the pleasure |  |  |  | anyway *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Patient |
| 5 | **talk** | gerund | the pleasure *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about Minon and Minette | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about minon=Topic |
| 6 | **conduct** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom conduct «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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