---
title: ‘I knew that they were really a King and Queen, whom the Fairies wer… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I knew that they were really a King and Queen, whom the Fairies were punishing for their ignorance and idleness. Who acts: I, they, Fairies. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 1

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‘I knew that they were really a King and Queen, whom the Fairies were punishing for their ignorance and idleness.

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**Who acts:** I, they, Fairies · **What happens:** know, be, punish, ignore · **To what, where:** King

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, they, Fairies), 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:pg7277:38:1
# text = ‘I knew that they were really a King and Queen, whom the Fairies were punishing for their ignorance and idleness.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	really	really	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	obj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	punishing	punish	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	ignorance	ignorance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	idleness	idleness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | they | a King and Queen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **punish** | past · progressive | the Fairies | a King and Queen |  |  |  | for Fairies's ignorance and idleness | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent whom=Patient for ignorance=Theme |
| 4 | **ignore** |  | Fairies *= fairy* |  |  |  |  |  | nom ignorance «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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