--- title: They flung themselves on the Prince, seized him, and dragged him bef… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: They flung themselves on the Prince, seized him, and dragged him before their lord; but, luckily for the Prince, who could only find very lame excuses for his conduct, the lord of the castle took a fancy to his face, and let him depart without further questions. Who acts: people, Prince, lame excuse --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/85/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Donkey Cabbage, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/) / 85 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 85 They flung themselves on the Prince, seized him, and dragged him before their lord; but, luckily for the Prince, who could only find very lame excuses for his conduct, the lord of the castle took a fancy to his face, and let him depart without further questions. **Who acts:** people, Prince, lame excuses, Saphir · **What happens:** fling, seize, drag, find, take, let · **To what, where:** people, Saphir, fancy, face · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (people, Prince, lame excuses, Saphir), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:11:85 # text = They flung themselves on the Prince, seized him, and dragged him before their lord; but, luckily for the Prince, who could only find very lame excuses for his conduct, the lord of the castle took a fancy to his face, and let him depart without further questions. 1 They they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 flung fling VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 2 obj _ _ 4 on on ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 Prince Prince PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 8 seized seize VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 9 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 11 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 12 dragged drag VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 13 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 obj _ _ 14 before before ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 15 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 lord lord NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 17 ; ; PUNCT : _ 23 punct _ _ 18 but but CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 20 luckily luckily ADV RB _ 23 advmod _ _ 21 for for ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 Prince Prince PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 25 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 28 nsubj _ _ 26 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 28 aux _ _ 27 only only ADV RB _ 28 advmod _ _ 28 find find VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 23 parataxis _ _ 29 very very ADV RB _ 30 advmod _ _ 30 lame lame ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 excuses excuse NOUN NNS Number=Plur 41 nsubj _ _ 32 for for ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 34 nmod:poss _ _ 34 conduct conduct NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 37 lord lord NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 nsubj _ _ 38 of of ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 40 castle castle NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nmod _ _ 41 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 ccomp _ _ 42 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 fancy fancy NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obj _ _ 44 to to ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 45 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 46 nmod:poss _ _ 46 face face NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 47 , , PUNCT , _ 49 punct _ _ 48 and and CCONJ CC _ 49 cc _ _ 49 let let VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 28 conj _ _ 50 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 49 obj _ _ 51 depart depart VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 49 xcomp _ _ 52 without without ADP IN _ 54 case _ _ 53 further further ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 54 amod _ _ 54 questions question NOUN NNS Number=Plur 51 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 55 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **fling** | past | people | people | | | | on the Prince | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme on prince=Destination | | 2 | **seize** | past | | Saphir | | | | | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 3 | **drag** | past | | Saphir | | | before people's lord | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | | 4 | **find** | could | the Prince | | | | | | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 5 | **take** | past | lame excuses for Saphir's conduct | a fancy | | Saphir's face | | | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent fancy=Theme to face=Destination | | 6 | **let** | infinitive | the Prince *not said here* | Saphir | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **depart** | infinitive | Saphir *not said here* | | | | | without further questions | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **conduct** | | Saphir | | | | | | nom conduct «act transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/84/) - next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/86/) - ↑ back to [The Donkey Cabbage, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/11/)