---
title: It was about this time that the fairies suddenly took fright lest hi… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was about this time that the fairies suddenly took fright lest his love for his father should interfere with the plans they had made for the young prince. Who acts: comfort, fairies, care. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was about this time that the fairies suddenly took fright lest his love for his father should interfere with the plans they had made for the young prince.

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**Who acts:** comfort, fairies, care · **What happens:** be, take, interfere, make, love · **To what, where:** fright, plans

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (comfort, fairies, care), 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:pg640:11:17
# text = It was about this time that the fairies suddenly took fright lest his love for his father should interfere with the plans they had made for the young prince.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	about	about	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
18	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	interfere	interfere	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	plans	plan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | comfort |  |  |  | about this time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past | the fairies | fright |  |  |  | lest care's love; for care's father; suddenly *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent fright=Theme for father=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **interfere** | should |  |  |  |  |  | with the plans | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | past · perfect | fairies *= fairy* | the plans *not said here* |  |  |  | for the young prince | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent plan=Product for prince=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **love** |  | care |  |  |  |  |  | nom love «feeling 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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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