---
title: The old woman went accordingly, and laid the matter before the King,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman went accordingly, and laid the matter before the King, who laughed a little at the notion of his daughter marrying a crab, but did not decline the proposal altogether, because he was a prudent monarch, and knew that the Crab was likely to be a prince in disguise. Who acts: old woman, K
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Golden Crab(5), sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old woman went accordingly, and laid the matter before the King, who laughed a little at the notion of his daughter marrying a crab, but did not decline the proposal altogether, because he was a prudent monarch, and knew that the Crab was likely to be a prince in disguise.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, King, daughter, Crab · **What happens:** go, lay, laugh, marry, not decline, be · **To what, where:** matter, little, notion, crab, proposal, prudent monarch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, King, daughter, Crab), 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:pg640:7:17
# text = The old woman went accordingly, and laid the matter before the King, who laughed a little at the notion of his daughter marrying a crab, but did not decline the proposal altogether, because he was a prudent monarch, and knew that the Crab was likely to be a prince in disguise.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	accordingly	accordingly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	before	before	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	notion	notion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	marrying	marry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	acl	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	decline	decline	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	proposal	proposal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
37	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
38	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	prudent	prudent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	monarch	monarch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
46	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	Crab	Crab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
49	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	cop	_	_
50	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	ccomp	_	_
51	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
52	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	54	cop	_	_
53	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	xcomp	_	_
55	in	in	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	disguise	disguise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | accordingly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lay** | past | the old woman *not said here* | the matter |  |  | before the King |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent matter=Theme before king=Destination |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the King | a little |  | the notion of King's daughter |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **marry** | gerund | King's daughter *not said here* | a crab |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crab=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **decline** | past · do-support |  | the proposal |  |  |  | altogether *property* | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent proposal=Theme |
| 6 | **is a** | past | King | a prudent monarch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **know** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **is** | past | the Crab |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **is a** | to-infinitive | the Crab *not said here* | a prince |  | disguise |  |  | 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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