---
title: A French gentleman, too, an educationist and expert in portraits of… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A French gentleman, too, an educationist and expert in portraits of Queen Mary, once sent me a newspaper article in which he had written that I was exclusively devoted to the composition of fairy books, and nothing else. Who acts: French gentleman, nymph. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andr
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A French gentleman, too, an educationist and expert in portraits of Queen Mary, once sent me a newspaper article in which he had written that I was exclusively devoted to the composition of fairy books, and nothing else.

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**Who acts:** French gentleman, nymph · **What happens:** send, write, devote, portray · **To what, where:** newspaper article, me, I, composition, Queen Mary

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, 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 (French gentleman, nymph), 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:pg3454:1:15
# text = A French gentleman, too, an educationist and expert in portraits of Queen Mary, once sent me a newspaper article in which he had written that I was exclusively devoted to the composition of fairy books, and nothing else.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	French	French	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	educationist	educationist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	expert	expert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	portraits	portrait	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	Mary	Mary	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
17	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	18	advmod	_	_
18	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	newspaper	newspaper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	article	article	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	obl	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	devoted	devote	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	advcl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	composition	composition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	conj	_	_
42	else	else	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | a French gentleman and a educationist and expert in portraits of Queen Mary | a newspaper article | me |  |  | once *property* | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Destination article=Theme |
| 2 | **write** | past · perfect | nymph |  |  | a newspaper article |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in which=Destination |
| 3 | **devote** | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  | to the composition of fairy books *goal*; exclusively *property* | vn dedicate-79 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Theme to composition=Goal |
| 4 | **portray** |  |  | Queen Mary |  |  |  |  | nom portrait «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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