---
title: ‘I heard from my tame sweetheart that he was merry and quick-witted;… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I heard from my tame sweetheart that he was merry and quick-witted; he had not come to woo, he said, but to listen to the princess’s wisdom. Who acts: I, Kay. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, 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/pg5615/9/106/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I heard from my tame sweetheart that he was merry and quick-witted; he had not come to woo, he said, but to listen to the princess’s wisdom.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Kay · **What happens:** hear, be, not come, woo, say, listen · **To what, where:** tame sweetheart · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Kay), 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:pg5615:9:106
# text = ‘I heard from my tame sweetheart that he was merry and quick-witted; he had not come to woo, he said, but to listen to the princess’s wisdom.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	tame	tame	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	sweetheart	sweetheart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	witted	witted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	woo	woo	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’s	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | I |  |  | my tame sweetheart |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from sweetheart=Source |
| 2 | **is** | past | Kay |  |  |  |  | merry *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | Kay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **come** | past | Kay |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **woo** | to-infinitive | Kay *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Kay |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **listen** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | to the princess's wisdom | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to wisdom=Theme |

<!-- .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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