---
title: This state of things went on for three years before the king found a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This state of things went on for three years before the king found any means of sending news of himself to his dear queen, but at last he contrived to send this letter: ‘Sell all our castles and palaces, and put all our treasures in pawn and come and deliver me out of this horrible prison.’ Who acts
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Lute Player, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This state of things went on for three years before the king found any means of sending news of himself to his dear queen, but at last he contrived to send this letter: ‘Sell all our castles and palaces, and put all our treasures in pawn and come and deliver me out of this horrible prison.’

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**Who acts:** state, king, any, last, our · **What happens:** go on, find, mean, send, contrive, sell · **To what, where:** news, dear queen, last, letter, castles, treasures · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (state, king, any, last), 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:pg641:8:10
# text = This state of things went on for three years before the king found any means of sending news of himself to his dear queen, but at last he contrived to send this letter: ‘Sell all our castles and palaces, and put all our treasures in pawn and come and deliver me out of this horrible prison.’
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
10	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	nsubj	_	_
15	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	sending	send	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	ccomp	_	_
18	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	nmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	contrived	contrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
36	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	Sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	ccomp	_	_
38	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	40	det:predet	_	_
39	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	castles	castle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	palaces	palace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	37	parataxis	_	_
46	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	48	det:predet	_	_
47	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	treasures	treasure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obj	_	_
49	in	in	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	pawn	pawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	come	come	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	45	conj	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	deliver	deliver	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	45	conj	_	_
55	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	54	obj	_	_
56	out	out	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
58	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	60	det	_	_
59	horrible	horrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	prison	prison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past | this state of things |  |  |  | year |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **mean** | present | any |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **send** | gerund |  | news of state | state's dear queen |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent news=Theme to queen=Destination |
| 5 | **contrive** | past | last |  |  | last |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **send** | to-infinitive | last *not said here* | this letter |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme |
| 7 | **sell** | infinitive | last *not said here* | our castles and palaces |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent castle=Theme |
| 8 | **put** | infinitive |  | our treasures |  | pawn |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent treasure=Theme in pawn=Destination |
| 9 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **deliver** | infinitive |  | me |  | this horrible prison |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent i=Theme out prison=Initial\_Location |
| 11 | **treasure** |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: 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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