---
title: He asked what the meaning of all the feasting and fuss was, and they… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He asked what the meaning of all the feasting and fuss was, and they told him that the King’s daughter was just going to be married to the man who had slain the terrible dragon. Who acts: stranger, feasting, daughter, man. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs, with its
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Dogs, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He asked what the meaning of all the feasting and fuss was, and they told him that the King’s daughter was just going to be married to the man who had slain the terrible dragon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stranger, feasting, daughter, man · **What happens:** ask, tell, go, marry, slay, mean · **To what, where:** stranger, terrible dragon, feasting · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stranger, feasting, daughter, man), 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:pg7277:56:44
# text = He asked what the meaning of all the feasting and fuss was, and they told him that the King’s daughter was just going to be married to the man who had slain the terrible dragon.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	obj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	feasting	feasting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	fuss	fuss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	just	just	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	ccomp	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	married	marry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	xcomp	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	slain	slay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	acl:relcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | stranger |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | feasting |  | stranger |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** | past · progressive | the King's daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **marry** | to-infinitive · passive | the King's daughter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the man | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: to man=Co-Patient |
| 5 | **slay** | past · perfect | the man | the terrible dragon |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Patient |
| 6 | **mean** |  |  | all feasting and fuss |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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