---
title: Breakfast, dinner, and supper were as savoury as before, and the pri… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Breakfast, dinner, and supper were as savoury as before, and the prince would have been quite content with his quarters had it not been for the difficulty of keeping silence in the presence of the maiden. Who acts: supper, prince, quarters, difficulty. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Breakfast, dinner, and supper were as savoury as before, and the prince would have been quite content with his quarters had it not been for the difficulty of keeping silence in the presence of the maiden.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** supper, prince, quarters, difficulty · **What happens:** be, have, not be, keep · **To what, where:** content, supper, silence, presence

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (supper, prince, quarters, difficulty), 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:pg641:9:111
# text = Breakfast, dinner, and supper were as savoury as before, and the prince would have been quite content with his quarters had it not been for the difficulty of keeping silence in the presence of the maiden.
1	Breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	savoury	savoury	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	conj	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	before	before	ADV	RB	_	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
19	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	content	content	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
21	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	quarters	quarter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
27	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
31	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
32	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	acl	_	_
33	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | supper |  |  |  |  | savoury *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | would · perfect | the prince | content |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | door's quarters | supper |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for the difficulty | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** | gerund | the difficulty *not said here* | silence |  | the presence of the maiden |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent silence=Theme in presence=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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