---
title: They heard her coming, faster, faster; and again the princess stoope… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They heard her coming, faster, faster; and again the princess stooped to ask what was to be done now. Who acts: mountains, princess. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They heard her coming, faster, faster; and again the princess stooped to ask what was to be done now.

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**Who acts:** mountains, princess · **What happens:** hear, come, stoop, ask, do · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, 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 (mountains, princess), 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:pg641:39:103
# text = They heard her coming, faster, faster; and again the princess stooped to ask what was to be done now.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	faster	fast	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	faster	fast	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	stooped	stoop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	obj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	_
22	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | mountains *= mountain* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | gerund | mountains *= mountain* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stoop** | past | the princess |  |  |  | again |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | the princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** *not said to happen* | past · passive |  |  |  |  | now |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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