---
title: Things were in this state, and the Princess was about fifteen years… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Things were in this state, and the Princess was about fifteen years old, when Prince Narcissus, attracted by the report of Queen Frivola’s gay doings, presented himself at the court. Who acts: Things, Princess. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Po
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Things were in this state, and the Princess was about fifteen years old, when Prince Narcissus, attracted by the report of Queen Frivola’s gay doings, presented himself at the court.

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**Who acts:** Things, Princess · **What happens:** be, attract, present, report · **To what, where:** state, Frivola, court, gay doings

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Things, Princess), 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:pg7277:11:13
# text = Things were in this state, and the Princess was about fifteen years old, when Prince Narcissus, attracted by the report of Queen Frivola’s gay doings, presented himself at the court.
1	Things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod:desc	_	_
18	Narcissus	Narcissus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	attracted	attract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	report	report	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
25	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod:desc	_	_
26	Frivola	Frivola	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	gay	gay	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	doings	doing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	presented	present	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
32	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	31	obj	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Things |  |  | this state |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Princess |  |  |  | year | Narcissus  Prince *obl*; old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **attract** | participle |  | this state *not said here* |  |  |  | by the report of Frivola  Queen's gay doings | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **present** | past | Things *not said here* | Frivola |  | the court |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 5 | **report** |  |  | Frivola  Queen's gay doings |  |  |  |  | nom report «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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