---
title: But a shadow hung over him which really poisoned most of his pleasur… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But a shadow hung over him which really poisoned most of his pleasure, and that was the thought of the poor innocent girl who had suffered in his stead, for his foster father had told him in secret, that he was the king’s son. Who acts: shadow, that, poor innocent girl, foster father. A sentence of 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 29

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But a shadow hung over him which really poisoned most of his pleasure, and that was the thought of the poor innocent girl who had suffered in his stead, for his foster father had told him in secret, that he was the king’s son.

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**Who acts:** shadow, that, poor innocent girl, foster father, boy · **What happens:** hang, poison, be, suffer, tell, please · **To what, where:** most, thought, stead, boy, secret, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (shadow, that, poor innocent girl, foster father), 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:pg641:9:29
# text = But a shadow hung over him which really poisoned most of his pleasure, and that was the thought of the poor innocent girl who had suffered in his stead, for his foster father had told him in secret, that he was the king’s son.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	over	over	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
8	really	really	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	poisoned	poison	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	innocent	innocent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	suffered	suffer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	stead	stead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	foster	foster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	iobj	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
43	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
44	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	cop	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	’s	's	PART	POS	_	46	case	_	_
48	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hang** | past | a shadow |  |  |  |  | over boy | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over he=Location |
| 2 | **poison** | past |  | most of boy's pleasure |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent most=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | past | that | the thought |  |  |  | of the poor innocent girl | tree rules |
| 4 | **suffer** | past · perfect | the poor innocent girl |  |  | boy's stead |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | boy's foster father |  | boy | secret |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 6 | **is a** | past | boy | the king's son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **please** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling 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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