---
title: In many tales, fairly cruel and savage deeds are done, and these hav… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In many tales, fairly cruel and savage deeds are done, and these have been softened down as much as possible; though it is impossible, even if it were desirable, to conceal the circumstance that popular stories were never intended to be tracts and nothing else. Who acts: narrative. A sentence of «Th
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In many tales, fairly cruel and savage deeds are done, and these have been softened down as much as possible; though it is impossible, even if it were desirable, to conceal the circumstance that popular stories were never intended to be tracts and nothing else.

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**Who acts:** narrative · **What happens:** do, soften down, be, conceal, not intend · **To what, where:** cruel deeds, many tales, these, circumstance, popular stories, tracts

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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 (narrative), 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:pg3027:1:16
# text = In many tales, fairly cruel and savage deeds are done, and these have been softened down as much as possible; though it is impossible, even if it were desirable, to conceal the circumstance that popular stories were never intended to be tracts and nothing else.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	fairly	fairly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	savage	savage	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
9	deeds	deed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	softened	soften	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	obj	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	expl	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	even	even	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	desirable	desirable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	conceal	conceal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	obj	_	_
40	popular	popular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nsubj:pass	_	_
42	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	aux:pass	_	_
43	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	44	advmod	_	_
44	intended	intend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	acl:relcl	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
46	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	cop	_	_
47	tracts	tract	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	ccomp	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	47	conj	_	_
50	else	else	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present · passive |  | cruel deeds |  | many tales |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **soften down** | present · perfect · passive |  | these |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | narrative |  |  |  |  | desirable *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **conceal** | to-infinitive |  | the circumstance |  |  |  |  | vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent circumstance=Patient |
| 6 | **not** **intend** | past · passive |  | popular stories |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is a** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | tracts |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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