---
title: The Prince told him all about his misadventure, and the condition on… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Prince told him all about his misadventure, and the condition on which the Emperor had promised to spare his life. Who acts: Prince. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 56

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The Prince told him all about his misadventure, and the condition on which the Emperor had promised to spare his life.

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**Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** tell, promise, spare · **To what, where:** condition, creature, Emperor, life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince), 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:pg7277:52:56
# text = The Prince told him all about his misadventure, and the condition on which the Emperor had promised to spare his life.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	all	all	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	misadventure	misadventure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the Prince | the condition | creature |  |  | about creature's misadventure | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient about misadventure=Topic |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · perfect · passive |  | the Emperor |  | the condition |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V NP that S»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **spare** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | creature's life |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent life=Asset |

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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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