---
title: When they retired to rest the Princess feared lest Jack should kiss… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they retired to rest the Princess feared lest Jack should kiss her because of his prickles, but he told her not to be alarmed as no harm should befall her. Who acts: arms, Jack, harm. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/48/66/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [Jack My Hedgehog](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/48/) / 66

# The Green Fairy Book, Jack My Hedgehog, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they retired to rest the Princess feared lest Jack should kiss her because of his prickles, but he told her not to be alarmed as no harm should befall her.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** arms, Jack, harm · **What happens:** retire, rest, fear, kiss, tell, not alarm · **To what, where:** Princess · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (arms, Jack, harm), 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:pg7277:48:66
# text = When they retired to rest the Princess feared lest Jack should kiss her because of his prickles, but he told her not to be alarmed as no harm should befall her.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	retired	retire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	rest	rest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	kiss	kiss	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	17	case	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	prickles	prickle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	alarmed	alarm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	ccomp	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	29	det	_	_
29	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	befall	befall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **retire** | past | arms *= arm* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **rest** | to-infinitive | arms *= arm* *not said here* | the Princess |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location princess=Theme |
| 3 | **fear** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **kiss** | should | Jack | Princess |  |  |  | because Jack's prickles | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Jack |  | Princess |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **not** **alarm** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 7 | **befall** | should | no harm | Princess |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/48/65/)
- next →: [sentence 67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/48/67/)
- ↑ back to [Jack My Hedgehog](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/48/)