---
title: The Fairy, however, left him there, promising to do her very best fo… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Fairy, however, left him there, promising to do her very best for him, and commanding all her swallows and butterflies to wait upon him and do his bidding. Who acts: Fairy, Narcissus. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, with its depe
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 156

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Fairy, however, left him there, promising to do her very best for him, and commanding all her swallows and butterflies to wait upon him and do his bidding.

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**Who acts:** Fairy, Narcissus · **What happens:** leave, promise, do, command, wait, bid · **To what, where:** Narcissus, Fairy, swallows, bidding · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Fairy, Narcissus), 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:pg7277:11:156
# text = The Fairy, however, left him there, promising to do her very best for him, and commanding all her swallows and butterflies to wait upon him and do his bidding.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	promising	promise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	obl	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	commanding	command	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
21	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	23	det:predet	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	butterflies	butterfly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
28	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | the Fairy | Narcissus |  | there |  | however *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | gerund | the Fairy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Fairy *not said here* | Fairy |  |  |  | best *obl* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality |
| 4 | **command** | gerund | the Fairy *not said here* | Fairy's swallows and butterflies |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent swallow=Eventuality |
| 5 | **wait** | to-infinitive | the Fairy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon Narcissus | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon he=Location |
| 6 | **do** | infinitive | the Fairy *not said here* | Narcissus's bidding |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bidding=Eventuality |
| 7 | **bid** |  | Narcissus |  |  |  |  |  | nom bidding «communication 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 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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