---
title: He was just going to open his door, when the maiden glided softly pa… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was just going to open his door, when the maiden glided softly past and whispered in his ear: ‘What task has he set you?’ Who acts: He, maiden, task. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 2, sentence 1

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He was just going to open his door, when the maiden glided softly past and whispered in his ear: ‘What task has he set you?’

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**Who acts:** He, maiden, task · **What happens:** go, open, glide, whisper, have, set · **To what, where:** door, ear, you

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (He, maiden, task), 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:pg641:10:1
# text = He was just going to open his door, when the maiden glided softly past and whispered in his ear: ‘What task has he set you?’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	glided	glide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	past	past	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	24	det	_	_
24	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · progressive | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **open** | to-infinitive | He *not said here* | his door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |
| 3 | **glide** | past | the maiden |  |  |  |  | past *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | the maiden *not said here* |  |  | maiden's ear |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ear=Location |
| 5 | **have** | present | what task |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **set** | infinitive | task | you |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient you=Result |

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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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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