---
title: Whilst she went to fetch it the King’s son rode off, and the servant… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whilst she went to fetch it the King’s son rode off, and the servant who had waited to tighten his saddle-girths was alone when the witch returned. Who acts: woman, son, servant, witch. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Riddle, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whilst she went to fetch it the King’s son rode off, and the servant who had waited to tighten his saddle-girths was alone when the witch returned.

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**Who acts:** woman, son, servant, witch · **What happens:** go, fetch, ride off, wait, tighten, be · **To what, where:** cup, saddle girths

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, son, servant, witch), 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:pg7277:47:16
# text = Whilst she went to fetch it the King’s son rode off, and the servant who had waited to tighten his saddle-girths was alone when the witch returned.
1	Whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	waited	wait	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	tighten	tighten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	saddle	saddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	girths	girth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
27	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **fetch** | to-infinitive | woman *not said here* | cup |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **ride off** | past | the King's son |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wait** | past · perfect | the servant |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tighten** | to-infinitive | the servant *not said here* | son's saddle girths |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent girth=Patient |
| 6 | **is** | past | the witch |  |  |  |  | return *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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