---
title: To begin with, he was very big and clumsy, then he had but one eye,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To begin with, he was very big and clumsy, then he had but one eye, and his teeth were long, and he stammered badly; nevertheless, he had an excellent opinion of himself, and mistook the Princess’s cry of terror for an exclamation of delighted surprise. Who acts: Prince, teeth, terror. A sentence of
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To begin with, he was very big and clumsy, then he had but one eye, and his teeth were long, and he stammered badly; nevertheless, he had an excellent opinion of himself, and mistook the Princess’s cry of terror for an exclamation of delighted surprise.

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**Who acts:** Prince, teeth, terror · **What happens:** begin, be, have, stammer, mistake, opine · **To what, where:** one eye, excellent opinion, cry, Prince, delighted surprise

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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 (Prince, teeth, terror), 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:pg7277:11:39
# text = To begin with, he was very big and clumsy, then he had but one eye, and his teeth were long, and he stammered badly; nevertheless, he had an excellent opinion of himself, and mistook the Princess’s cry of terror for an exclamation of delighted surprise.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	clumsy	clumsy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	stammered	stammer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
28	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	nevertheless	nevertheless	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
34	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	opinion	opinion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	mistook	mistake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	conj	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	’s	's	PART	POS	_	43	case	_	_
45	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	_
48	for	for	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	exclamation	exclamation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
51	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | nevertheless *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | big *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past | Prince | one eye |  |  | then |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | Prince's teeth |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **stammer** *speech: other* | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **have** | past | Prince | a excellent opinion of Prince |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opinion=Patient |
| 8 | **mistake** | past | Prince *not said here* | the Princess's cry of terror |  |  |  | for a exclamation of delighted surprise | tree rules |
| 9 | **opine** |  |  | Prince |  |  |  |  | nom opinion «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 10 | **cry** |  | terror |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=agent |
| 11 | **exclaim** |  |  | delighted surprise |  |  |  |  | nom exclamation «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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