---
title: When an author publishes a book 'out of his own head,' he writes the… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When an author publishes a book 'out of his own head,' he writes the preface for his own pleasure. Who acts: author. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 7

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When an author publishes a book 'out of his own head,' he writes the preface for his own pleasure.

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**Who acts:** author · **What happens:** publish, write, please · **To what, where:** book, own head, preface

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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 (author), 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:pg3027:1:7
# text = When an author publishes a book 'out of his own head,' he writes the preface for his own pleasure.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	author	author	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	publishes	publish	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	writes	write	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	preface	preface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **publish** | present | a author | a book |  | author's own head |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Result |
| 2 | **write** | present | author | the preface |  |  |  | for author's own pleasure | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent preface=Result for pleasure=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **please** |  | author |  |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling transitive»: poss=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:** «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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