---
title: As soon as he came into the yard he walked very softly, and the ladi… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as he came into the yard he walked very softly, and the ladies-in-waiting were so busy counting the kisses and seeing fair play that they never noticed the Emperor. Who acts: Emperor, ladies. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Swineherd, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Swineherd, sentence 97

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as he came into the yard he walked very softly, and the ladies-in-waiting were so busy counting the kisses and seeing fair play that they never noticed the Emperor.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Emperor, ladies · **What happens:** come, walk, be, count, see, not notice · **To what, where:** yard, kisses, fair play

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Emperor, ladies), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:43:97
# text = As soon as he came into the yard he walked very softly, and the ladies-in-waiting were so busy counting the kisses and seeing fair play that they never noticed the Emperor.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	waiting	waiting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
24	counting	count	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	kisses	kiss	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	conj	_	_
29	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	obj	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Emperor |  |  |  |  | into the yard; soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into yard=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **walk** | past | Emperor | the yard *not said here* |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme yard=Trajectory |
| 3 | **is** | past | the ladies and waiting |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **count** | gerund | the ladies and waiting *not said here* | the kisses |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kiss=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | gerund | the ladies and waiting *not said here* | fair play |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer play=Stimulus |
| 6 | **not** **notice** | past | ladies *= lady* | fair play |  |  |  |  | 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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