---
title: But they had hardly turned their backs to go home empty-handed when… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But they had hardly turned their backs to go home empty-handed when the prince and the maiden stood on the earth again. Who acts: pursuers, prince. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 3, sentence 49

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But they had hardly turned their backs to go home empty-handed when the prince and the maiden stood on the earth again.

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**Who acts:** pursuers, prince · **What happens:** turn, go, hand, stand · **To what, where:** backs, earth

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pursuers, prince), 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:pg641:11:49
# text = But they had hardly turned their backs to go home empty-handed when the prince and the maiden stood on the earth again.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
10	home	home	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
20	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	again	again	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past · perfect | pursuers *= pursuer* | pursuers's backs |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent back=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | to-infinitive | pursuers *= pursuer* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | empty, home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hand** | participle | pursuers *= pursuer* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **stand** | past | the prince and the maiden |  |  | the earth | again |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on earth=Location |

<!-- .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 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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