---
title: It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little sold… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the meeting-place three times running. Who acts: little soldier, daughter, soldier, three times. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 215

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the meeting-place three times running.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little soldier, daughter, soldier, three times · **What happens:** prophesy, deliver, marry, fail, not appear, run · **To what, where:** serpent, daughter, soldier, meeting place

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little soldier, daughter, soldier, three times), 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:pg7277:22:215
# text = It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the meeting-place three times running.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	prophesied	prophesy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	delivered	deliver	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	meeting	meeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
34	running	run	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prophesy** | past · perfect · passive |  | serpent |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **deliver** | should · passive | a little soldier | daughter |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 3 | **marry** | must | daughter | soldier |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | soldier |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **not** **appear** | to-infinitive | soldier *not said here* |  |  | the meeting place | time |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at place=Location |
| 6 | **run** | gerund | three times *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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