---
title: ‘What is it?’ said the dove, flying in through the open window, and… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What is it?’ said the dove, flying in through the open window, and the prince told her of the task before him, and of his despair at being unable to accomplish it. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, sentence 24

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‘What is it?’ said the dove, flying in through the open window, and the prince told her of the task before him, and of his despair at being unable to accomplish it.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** be, say, fly in, tell, accomplish, despair · **To what, where:** command, dove, open window, scent · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg641:42:24
# text = ‘What is it?’ said the dove, flying in through the open window, and the prince told her of the task before him, and of his despair at being unable to accomplish it.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dove	dove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	before	before	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	parataxis	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	cop	_	_
35	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | command |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the dove |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent dove=Topic |
| 3 | **fly in** | gerund |  |  |  | the open window |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through window=Location |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the prince |  | scent |  | before man | of the task | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 5 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | unable *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **accomplish** | to-infinitive |  | command |  |  |  |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 7 | **despair** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom despair «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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