---
title: ‘I hope that this, at least, is not real?’ asked the Princess. — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I hope that this, at least, is not real?’ asked the Princess. Who acts: I, Princess. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Swineherd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Swineherd, sentence 28

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‘I hope that this, at least, is not real?’ asked the Princess.

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**Who acts:** I, Princess · **What happens:** hope, not be, ask · **To what, where:** this, least

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Swineherd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, 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:pg640:43:28
# text = ‘I hope that this, at least, is not real?’ asked the Princess.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hope	hope	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hope** | present | I | this |  | least |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | present | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | real *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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