---
title: The magic mirror had been for about a year in the Prince’s possessio… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The magic mirror had been for about a year in the Prince’s possession, when one day a new subject of disquiet seized upon him. Who acts: magic mirror, one day, Prince. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/24/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 24

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The magic mirror had been for about a year in the Prince’s possession, when one day a new subject of disquiet seized upon him.

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**Who acts:** magic mirror, one day, Prince · **What happens:** have, subject, seize, possess · **To what, where:** disquiet

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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 (magic mirror, one day, Prince), 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:pg640:11:24
# text = The magic mirror had been for about a year in the Prince’s possession, when one day a new subject of disquiet seized upon him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	about	about	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	disquiet	disquiet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | participle | the magic mirror |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **subject** |  | one day |  |  |  |  | of disquiet | tree rules |
| 3 | **seize** | participle |  | disquiet *not said here* |  |  |  | upon movement | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **possess** |  | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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 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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