---
title: She claimed three days in which to think over the riddles, but she w… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She claimed three days in which to think over the riddles, but she was so very clever that she invariably guessed them in a much shorter time. Who acts: Princess. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Riddle, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She claimed three days in which to think over the riddles, but she was so very clever that she invariably guessed them in a much shorter time.

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**Who acts:** Princess · **What happens:** claim, think, be, guess · **To what, where:** riddles, robbers

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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 (Princess), 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:pg7277:47:31
# text = She claimed three days in which to think over the riddles, but she was so very clever that she invariably guessed them in a much shorter time.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	claimed	claim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	2	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
9	over	over	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	riddles	riddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	invariably	invariably	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	much	much	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **claim** *speech: other* | past | Princess |  |  |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent which=Topic |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Princess *not said here* |  |  | the riddles |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | Princess |  |  |  |  | clever *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **guess** | past | Princess | robbers *= robber* |  |  | time | invariably *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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