---
title: The Prince was eager to catch it, if possible, so they gave chase an… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Prince was eager to catch it, if possible, so they gave chase and rode on without stopping until all the horses began to founder beneath them. Who acts: Prince, men, horses. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (30), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Prince Ring (30), sentence 7

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The Prince was eager to catch it, if possible, so they gave chase and rode on without stopping until all the horses began to founder beneath them.

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**Who acts:** Prince, men, horses · **What happens:** be, catch, give, ride on, stop, begin · **To what, where:** sight, chase

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (30). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, men, horses), 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:pg640:42:7
# text = The Prince was eager to catch it, if possible, so they gave chase and rode on without stopping until all the horses began to founder beneath them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	eager	eager	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
15	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	stopping	stop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
21	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	24	det:predet	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
25	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	founder	founder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Prince |  |  |  |  | eager *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **catch** | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* | sight |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* |  | the Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | past | men *= man* | chase |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chase=Theme |
| 5 | **ride on** | past | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **stop** | gerund | men *= man* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 7 | **begin** | past | all horses |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **founder** | to-infinitive | all horses *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beneath men *= man* | 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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