---
title: As soon as the King’s son saw the old Abbess spinning he threw himse… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as the King’s son saw the old Abbess spinning he threw himself at her feet and entreated her to tell him how he could kill the Seven-headed Serpent. Who acts: son. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 4, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as the King’s son saw the old Abbess spinning he threw himself at her feet and entreated her to tell him how he could kill the Seven-headed Serpent.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** see, spin, throw, entreat, tell, kill · **To what, where:** old Abbess, son, feet, Abbess, headed Serpent · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son), 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:pg640:13:7
# text = As soon as the King’s son saw the old Abbess spinning he threw himself at her feet and entreated her to tell him how he could kill the Seven-headed Serpent.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Abbess	Abbess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	nsubj	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	entreated	entreat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
21	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
30	Seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	headed	headed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	Serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the King's son | the old Abbess |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer abbess=Stimulus |
| 2 | **spin** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **throw** | past |  | son |  | Abbess's feet |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent himself=Theme at foot=Destination |
| 4 | **entreat** | past | the King's son *not said here* | Abbess |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the King's son *not said here* |  | son |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 6 | **kill** | could | son | the headed Serpent |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent serpent=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 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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