---
title: It is indeed curious how little originality there is among mankind i… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It is indeed curious how little originality there is among mankind in the matter of stupidity. Who acts: self, little originality, stupidity. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LXXXVI. Wise Men of Gotham, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, LXXXVI. Wise Men of Gotham, sentence 13

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It is indeed curious how little originality there is among mankind in the matter of stupidity.

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**Who acts:** self, little originality, stupidity · **What happens:** be, matter

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LXXXVI. Wise Men of Gotham. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (self, little originality, stupidity), 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:pg14241:79:13
# text = It is indeed curious how little originality there is among mankind in the matter of stupidity.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	originality	originality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	among	among	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	mankind	mankind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	stupidity	stupidity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | self |  |  |  |  | curious, indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | present | little originality |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **matter** |  | stupidity |  |  |  |  |  | nom matter «cognition intransitive»: of=agent |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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