--- title: The Princess, on finding herself in an eagle’s talons, uttered the m… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The Princess, on finding herself in an eagle’s talons, uttered the most heart-breaking shrieks and cries; but her captor, though touched by her distress, would not abandon his lovely prey, and continued to fly through the air too fast to allow of his saying anything to comfort her. Who acts: Princes --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/20/3/) [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/) / [How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/20/) / 3 # The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 3 The Princess, on finding herself in an eagle’s talons, uttered the most heart-breaking shrieks and cries; but her captor, though touched by her distress, would not abandon his lovely prey, and continued to fly through the air too fast to allow of his saying anything to comfort her. **Who acts:** Princess, eagle · **What happens:** find, utter, touch, not abandon, continue, fly · **To what, where:** Princess, talons, breaking shrieks, lovely prey, air, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Princess, eagle), 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:pg640:20:3 # text = The Princess, on finding herself in an eagle’s talons, uttered the most heart-breaking shrieks and cries; but her captor, though touched by her distress, would not abandon his lovely prey, and continued to fly through the air too fast to allow of his saying anything to comfort her. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 Princess Princess PROPN NNP Number=Sing 13 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 3 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ _ 4 on on SCONJ IN _ 5 mark _ _ 5 finding find VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 2 acl _ _ 6 herself herself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 5 obj _ _ 7 in in ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 8 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 eagle eagle NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 10 ’s 's PART POS _ 9 case _ _ 11 talons talon NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ _ 13 uttered utter VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 15 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 19 advmod _ _ 16 heart heart NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 17 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 16 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 18 breaking breaking NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 compound _ _ 19 shrieks shriek NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 obj _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 cries cry NOUN NNS Number=Plur 19 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 22 ; ; PUNCT : _ 25 punct _ _ 23 but but CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 24 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 25 nmod:poss _ _ 25 captor captor NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 27 though though SCONJ IN _ 28 mark _ _ 28 touched touch VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 13 parataxis _ _ 29 by by ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 31 nmod:poss _ _ 31 distress distress NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 33 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 35 aux _ _ 34 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 35 advmod _ _ 35 abandon abandon VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 28 conj _ _ 36 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 38 nmod:poss _ _ 37 lovely lovely ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 prey prey NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 39 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 40 and and CCONJ CC _ 41 cc _ _ 41 continued continue VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 13 parataxis _ _ 42 to to PART TO _ 43 mark _ _ 43 fly fly VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 41 xcomp _ _ 44 through through ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 45 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 air air NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 obl _ _ 47 too too ADV RB _ 48 advmod _ _ 48 fast fast ADV RB Degree=Pos 43 advmod _ _ 49 to to PART TO _ 50 mark _ _ 50 allow allow VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 43 advcl _ _ 51 of of SCONJ IN _ 53 mark _ _ 52 his his PRON PRP$ Gender=Masc|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 53 nsubj _ _ 53 saying say VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 50 advcl _ _ 54 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 53 obj _ _ 55 to to PART TO _ 56 mark _ _ 56 comfort comfort VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 54 acl _ _ 57 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 56 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 58 . . PUNCT . _ 13 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **find** | gerund | the Princess *not said here* | Princess | | a eagle's talons | | | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Topic | | 2 | **utter** *speech: other* | past | the Princess | the breaking shrieks and cries | | | | Princess's captor *obl* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent shriek=Topic | | 3 | **touch** | participle | | | | | | by Princess's distress | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **not** **abandon** | would | | eagle's lovely prey | | | | | vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme prey=Source | | 5 | **continue** | past | | | | | | | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 6 | **fly** | to-infinitive | | | | the air | | fast *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through air=Location | | 7 | **allow** | to-infinitive | | | | | | | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Causer | | 8 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | eagle | anything | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic | | 9 | **comfort** | to-infinitive | eagle *not said here* | Princess | | | | | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer | | 10 | **distress** | | Princess | | | | | | nom distress «feeling 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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/20/2/) - next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/20/4/) - ↑ back to [How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/20/)