---
title: In truth I never did write any fairy books in my life, except ‘Princ… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In truth I never did write any fairy books in my life, except ‘Prince Prigio,’ ‘Prince Ricardo,’ and ‘Tales from a Fairy Court’--that of the aforesaid Prigio. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 17

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In truth I never did write any fairy books in my life, except ‘Prince Prigio,’ ‘Prince Ricardo,’ and ‘Tales from a Fairy Court’--that of the aforesaid Prigio.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not write · **To what, where:** fairy books, truth

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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 (I), 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:pg3454:1:17
# text = In truth I never did write any fairy books in my life, except ‘Prince Prigio,’ ‘Prince Ricardo,’ and ‘Tales from a Fairy Court’--that of the aforesaid Prigio.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
8	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	except	except	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod:desc	_	_
17	Prigio	Prigio	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:desc	_	_
22	Ricardo	Ricardo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	Court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	aforesaid	aforesaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
38	Prigio	Prigio	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	37	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **write** | past · do-support | I | any fairy books |  | truth |  | in my life | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent book=Theme in truth=Destination |

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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 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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