---
title: He made business a pretext for shutting himself up in his study, but… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He made business a pretext for shutting himself up in his study, but it was really in order to spend the time with the Princess, who remained inflexible. Who acts: King, pretext, Princess. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, wit
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He made business a pretext for shutting himself up in his study, but it was really in order to spend the time with the Princess, who remained inflexible.

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**Who acts:** King, pretext, Princess · **What happens:** make, shut up, be, spend, remain, study · **To what, where:** business, King, study, order

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, 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 (King, pretext, Princess), 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:pg640:20:21
# text = He made business a pretext for shutting himself up in his study, but it was really in order to spend the time with the Princess, who remained inflexible.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pretext	pretext	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	shutting	shut	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	study	study	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	really	really	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	spend	spend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	inflexible	inflexible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | King | business |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset business=Beneficiary pretext=Product |
| 2 | **shut up** | gerund | King *not said here* | King |  | King's study |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | pretext |  |  | order |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **spend** | to-infinitive | King *not said here* |  |  |  | time | with the Princess | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **remain** | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  | inflexible *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **study** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom study «act 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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