---
title: I was so slow, and did my errands so badly, that before she left she… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I was so slow, and did my errands so badly, that before she left she called the King and Queen and said to them: Who acts: I, unicorn. 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 clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I was so slow, and did my errands so badly, that before she left she called the King and Queen and said to them:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, unicorn · **What happens:** be, do, leave, call, say · **To what, where:** errands, that, King · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, unicorn), 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:pg7277:38:14
# text = I was so slow, and did my errands so badly, that before she left she called the King and Queen and said to them:
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	errands	errand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
14	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | slow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | past | I *not said here* | my errands |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent errand=Eventuality |
| 3 | **leave** | past | unicorn | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** | past | unicorn |  | the King and Queen |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent king=Recipient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | unicorn *not said here* |  | King |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |

<!-- .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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