---
title: But, perhaps, nobody reads prefaces except other authors; and critic… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, perhaps, nobody reads prefaces except other authors; and critics, who hope that they will find enough in the preface to enable them to do without reading any of the book. Who acts: nobody, critics, '. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, perhaps, nobody reads prefaces except other authors; and critics, who hope that they will find enough in the preface to enable them to do without reading any of the book.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** nobody, critics, ' · **What happens:** read, hope, find, enable, do · **To what, where:** prefaces, enough, preface, ', any · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (nobody, critics, '), 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:pg3027:1:9
# text = But, perhaps, nobody reads prefaces except other authors; and critics, who hope that they will find enough in the preface to enable them to do without reading any of the book.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	nsubj	_	_
6	reads	read	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	prefaces	preface	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	except	except	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	authors	author	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	critics	critic	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	hope	hope	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
21	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	preface	preface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	enable	enable	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
30	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	reading	read	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
32	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** | present | nobody | prefaces |  |  |  | except other authors; critics *obl*; perhaps *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent preface=Topic |
| 2 | **hope** | present | critics |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | future | ' | enough |  | the preface |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enough=Topic |
| 4 | **enable** | to-infinitive | ' *not said here* | ' |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | ' *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **read** | gerund | ' *not said here* | any |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Topic |

<!-- .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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