---
title: This appears to be the philosophy of prefaces in general, and perhap… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This appears to be the philosophy of prefaces in general, and perhaps authors might be more daring and candid than they are with advantage, and write regular criticisms of their own books in their prefaces, for nobody can be so good a critic of himself as the author--if he has a sense of humour. Who
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 10

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This appears to be the philosophy of prefaces in general, and perhaps authors might be more daring and candid than they are with advantage, and write regular criticisms of their own books in their prefaces, for nobody can be so good a critic of himself as the author--if he has a sense of humour.

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**Who acts:** This, authors, ', nobody, author · **What happens:** appear, be, write, have, preface, sense · **To what, where:** philosophy, regular criticisms, prefaces, sense, humour

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, authors, ', nobody), 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:pg3027:1:10
# text = This appears to be the philosophy of prefaces in general, and perhaps authors might be more daring and candid than they are with advantage, and write regular criticisms of their own books in their prefaces, for nobody can be so good a critic of himself as the author--if he has a sense of humour.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	appears	appear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	philosophy	philosophy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	xcomp	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	prefaces	preface	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	general	general	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	authors	author	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
17	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	amod	_	_
18	daring	daring	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	candid	candid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
21	than	than	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	advantage	advantage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	write	write	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
29	regular	regular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	criticisms	criticism	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	prefaces	preface	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
39	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
40	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	44	nsubj	_	_
41	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
42	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	cop	_	_
43	so	so	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
45	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	critic	critic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	46	nmod	_	_
49	as	as	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	author	author	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
54	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
55	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
56	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
57	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obj	_	_
58	of	of	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	humour	humour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | present | This |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | This *not said here* | the philosophy |  |  |  | of prefaces in general | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | might | authors |  |  |  |  | daring, perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | authors *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | present | ' |  |  |  |  | than advantage | tree rules |
| 6 | **write** | infinitive |  | regular criticisms of ''s own books |  | ''s prefaces |  | as the author | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent criticism=Recipient critic=Topic |
| 7 | **is** | can | nobody |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | author | a sense of humour |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient |
| 9 | **preface** |  | ' |  |  |  |  |  | nom preface «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 10 | **sense** |  |  | humour |  |  |  |  | nom sense «cognition 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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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