---
title: Nobody seemed to want them, or, if they did, the young men declared… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Nobody seemed to want them, or, if they did, the young men declared that they were not able to undertake all that the farmers or millers or woodcutters required of them. Who acts: Nobody, eyes, young men. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 16, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody seemed to want them, or, if they did, the young men declared that they were not able to undertake all that the farmers or millers or woodcutters required of them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nobody, eyes, young men · **What happens:** seem, want, do, declare, not be, undertake · **To what, where:** eyes, farmers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nobody, eyes, young men), 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:pg3027:16:39
# text = Nobody seemed to want them, or, if they did, the young men declared that they were not able to undertake all that the farmers or millers or woodcutters required of them.
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	undertake	undertake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	27	det:predet	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	farmers	farmer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	millers	miller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	woodcutters	woodcutter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	_
32	required	require	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | Nobody |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **want** | to-infinitive | Nobody *not said here* | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot they=Theme |
| 3 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | the young men |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** | past | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **undertake** | to-infinitive | eyes *= eye* *not said here* | all farmers or millers or woodcutters |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farmer=Eventuality |
| 7 | **require** | participle |  | all farmers or millers or woodcutters *not said here* |  |  |  | of eyes *= eye* | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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