---
title: Once upon a time there were three Princesses who were all three youn… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there were three Princesses who were all three young and beautiful; but the youngest, although she was not fairer than the other two, was the most loveable of them all. Who acts: three Princesses, Kletke, youngest. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful B
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, sentence 99

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Once upon a time there were three Princesses who were all three young and beautiful; but the youngest, although she was not fairer than the other two, was the most loveable of them all.

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**Who acts:** three Princesses, Kletke, youngest · **What happens:** be, not be

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), 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 (three Princesses, Kletke, youngest), 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:pg640:17:99
# text = Once upon a time there were three Princesses who were all three young and beautiful; but the youngest, although she was not fairer than the other two, was the most loveable of them all.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
7	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	Princesses	princess	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	all	all	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	acl:relcl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	fairer	fair	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	parataxis	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	34	advmod	_	_
34	loveable	loveable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	_
37	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	36	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | three Princesses |  |  |  |  | all, young *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | three Princesses *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | young *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past | Kletke |  |  |  |  | than the other two; fair *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | the youngest |  |  |  |  | of Princesses *= princess*; loveable *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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