--- title: As she could think of no way to guess the riddle, she ordered her ma… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: As she could think of no way to guess the riddle, she ordered her maid to steal at night into the Prince’s bedroom and to listen, for she thought that he might perhaps talk aloud in his dreams and so betray the secret. Who acts: poison, maid. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/47/38/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Riddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/47/) / 38 # The Green Fairy Book, The Riddle, sentence 38 As she could think of no way to guess the riddle, she ordered her maid to steal at night into the Prince’s bedroom and to listen, for she thought that he might perhaps talk aloud in his dreams and so betray the secret. **Who acts:** poison, maid · **What happens:** think, guess, order, steal, listen, talk · **To what, where:** riddle, maid, bedroom, dreams, secret · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (poison, maid), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7277:47:38 # text = As she could think of no way to guess the riddle, she ordered her maid to steal at night into the Prince’s bedroom and to listen, for she thought that he might perhaps talk aloud in his dreams and so betray the secret. 1 As as SCONJ IN _ 4 mark _ _ 2 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 4 aux _ _ 4 think think VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 5 of of ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 6 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 7 det _ _ 7 way way NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obl _ _ 8 to to PART TO _ 9 mark _ _ 9 guess guess VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 7 acl _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 riddle riddle NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 13 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 14 ordered order VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ _ 15 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 maid maid NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ _ 17 to to PART TO _ 18 mark _ _ 18 steal steal VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 xcomp _ _ 19 at at ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 20 night night NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 21 into into ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 Prince Prince PROPN NNP Number=Sing 25 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ’s 's PART POS _ 23 case _ _ 25 bedroom bedroom NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 27 to to PART TO _ 28 mark _ _ 28 listen listen VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 18 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 30 for for SCONJ IN _ 32 mark _ _ 31 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 nsubj _ _ 32 thought think VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 advcl _ _ 33 that that SCONJ IN _ 37 mark _ _ 34 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 35 might might AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 37 aux _ _ 36 perhaps perhaps ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 37 talk talk VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 32 ccomp _ _ 38 aloud aloud ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 39 in in ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 40 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 41 nmod:poss _ _ 41 dreams dream NOUN NNS Number=Plur 37 obl _ _ 42 and and CCONJ CC _ 44 cc _ _ 43 so so ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 44 betray betray VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 conj _ _ 45 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 secret secret NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 47 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **think** *speech: other* | could | poison | | | | | of no way | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **guess** | to-infinitive | poison *not said here* | the riddle | | | | | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent riddle=Theme | | 3 | **order** | past | poison | | poison's maid | | | | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent maid=Recipient clause=Topic | | 4 | **steal** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | poison *not said here* | | | the Prince's bedroom | night | | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **listen** | to-infinitive | poison *not said here* | | | | | | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **think** *speech: other* | past | poison | | | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 7 | **talk** | might | maid | | | maid's dreams | | aloud, perhaps *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **betray** | infinitive | poison *not said here* | the secret | | | | | tree rules | | 9 | **dream** | | maid | | | | | | nom dream «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/47/37/) - next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/47/39/) - ↑ back to [The Riddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/47/)