---
title: They never talked about it, and always pretended that there was noth… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They never talked about it, and always pretended that there was nothing in the world to wish for; but, sometimes when they looked at other people's children, their faces grew sad, and their courtiers and attendants knew the reason why. Who acts: king, nothing, faces, courtiers. A sentence of «The Or
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 22, sentence 31

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They never talked about it, and always pretended that there was nothing in the world to wish for; but, sometimes when they looked at other people's children, their faces grew sad, and their courtiers and attendants knew the reason why.

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**Who acts:** king, nothing, faces, courtiers · **What happens:** not talk, pretend, be, wish, look, grow · **To what, where:** reason

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, nothing, faces, courtiers), 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:pg3027:22:31
# text = They never talked about it, and always pretended that there was nothing in the world to wish for; but, sometimes when they looked at other people's children, their faces grew sad, and their courtiers and attendants knew the reason why.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	9	advmod	_	_
9	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
12	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
13	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	nsubj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
35	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
36	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	nsubj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	attendants	attendant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	conj	_	_
43	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
46	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	45	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **talk** | past | king |  |  |  |  | about Doe | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about it=Topic |
| 2 | **pretend** | past | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wish** | to-infinitive | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **look** | past | king |  |  |  |  | at other people's children; sometimes *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at child=Theme |
| 6 | **grow** | past | king's faces |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **know** | past | king's courtiers and attendants | the reason |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer reason=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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