---
title: No doubt Perrault's position was untenable, but he conducted his def… — The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault · tree and pragmatics
description: No doubt Perrault's position was untenable, but he conducted his defence with perfect temper and much wit; and Boileau made himself not a little absurd by his violence and his obvious longing to display the extent of his learning. Who acts: position, man, Boileau. A sentence of «The Fairy Tales of C
---

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# The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, "he Thought the Princess Was His Queen" 143, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No doubt Perrault's position was untenable, but he conducted his defence with perfect temper and much wit; and Boileau made himself not a little absurd by his violence and his obvious longing to display the extent of his learning.

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**Who acts:** position, man, Boileau · **What happens:** be, conduct, not make, display, defend, long · **To what, where:** defence, man, extent, learning

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This is a sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, "he Thought the Princess Was His Queen" 143. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (position, man, Boileau), 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:pg29021:6:57
# text = No doubt Perrault's position was untenable, but he conducted his defence with perfect temper and much wit; and Boileau made himself not a little absurd by his violence and his obvious longing to display the extent of his learning.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	_
3	Perrault	Perrault	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
5	position	position	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	untenable	untenable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	conducted	conduct	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	defence	defence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	temper	temper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	wit	wit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	Boileau	Boileau	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
24	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	obj	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	absurd	absurd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	violence	violence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	obvious	obvious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	longing	longing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	display	display	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	extent	extent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	learning	learning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | no doubt's position |  |  |  |  | untenable *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **conduct** | past | man | man's defence |  |  |  | with perfect temper and much wit | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent defence=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **make** | past | Boileau | man |  |  |  | by man's violence and man's obvious longing; a little absurd *obl* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Product |
| 4 | **display** | to-infinitive | Boileau *not said here* | the extent of man's learning |  |  |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent extent=Theme |
| 5 | **defend** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom defence «process transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **long** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom longing «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **extend** |  |  | man's learning |  |  |  |  | nom extent «state 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 Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Project Gutenberg book 29021 (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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