---
title: He promised faithfully to come back to her as soon as he could and b… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He promised faithfully to come back to her as soon as he could and begged her to await his return under the lime-tree where they had spent so many happy hours. Who acts: Prince, wooers. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He promised faithfully to come back to her as soon as he could and begged her to await his return under the lime-tree where they had spent so many happy hours.

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**Who acts:** Prince, wooers · **What happens:** promise, come back, beg, await, spend, return · **To what, where:** Helena, return, lime tree

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, wooers), 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:pg7277:29:13
# text = He promised faithfully to come back to her as soon as he could and begged her to await his return under the lime-tree where they had spent so many happy hours.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	back	back	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	await	await	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	under	under	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	lime	lime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
26	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	29	advmod	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  | Helena |  |  | soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to she=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | Prince *not said here* |  | Helena |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **await** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* | Prince's return |  | the lime tree |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **spend** | past · perfect | wooers *= wooer* |  |  |  | hour |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **return** |  | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom return «communication intransitive»: 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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