---
title: But she was afraid of the stepmother, and begged the King to let her… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But she was afraid of the stepmother, and begged the King to let her stay just one night more in the castle in the wood. Who acts: maiden. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Swans, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Six Swans, sentence 28

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But she was afraid of the stepmother, and begged the King to let her stay just one night more in the castle in the wood.

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**Who acts:** maiden · **What happens:** be, beg, let, stay · **To what, where:** King, maiden, more · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Swans. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maiden), 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:pg640:4:28
# text = But she was afraid of the stepmother, and begged the King to let her stay just one night more in the castle in the wood.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	just	just	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
20	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | maiden |  |  |  |  | of the stepmother; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | maiden *not said here* |  | the King |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent king=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | maiden |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **stay** | infinitive | maiden *not said here* | more |  |  | night |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme more=Location |

<!-- .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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