---
title: Soon after he heard that the Princess was ill, and that the only thi… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Soon after he heard that the Princess was ill, and that the only thing that did her good was having stories told to her. Who acts: man, Princess, only thing. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Golden Crab(5), sentence 86

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Soon after he heard that the Princess was ill, and that the only thing that did her good was having stories told to her.

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**Who acts:** man, Princess, only thing · **What happens:** hear, be, do, have, tell · **To what, where:** Princess, stories · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (man, Princess, only thing), 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:pg640:7:86
# text = Soon after he heard that the Princess was ill, and that the only thing that did her good was having stories told to her.
1	Soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
2	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
22	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | man |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | past | the only thing | Princess |  |  |  | good *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality |
| 4 | **have** | past · progressive | the only thing | stories |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Patient |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle |  | stories *not said here* | Princess |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |

<!-- .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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