---
title: People told them in all parts of the world long before Egyptian hier… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: People told them in all parts of the world long before Egyptian hieroglyphics or Cretan signs or Cyprian syllabaries, or alphabets were invented. Who acts: People. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 32

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People told them in all parts of the world long before Egyptian hieroglyphics or Cretan signs or Cyprian syllabaries, or alphabets were invented.

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**Who acts:** People · **What happens:** tell, invent · **To what, where:** stories, parts, alphabets · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (People), 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:pg3454:1:32
# text = People told them in all parts of the world long before Egyptian hieroglyphics or Cretan signs or Cyprian syllabaries, or alphabets were invented.
1	People	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	parts	part	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
11	before	before	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	Egyptian	Egyptian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	hieroglyphics	hieroglyphic	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	Cretan	Cretan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	Cyprian	cyprian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	syllabaries	syllabary	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	alphabets	alphabet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | People |  | stories *= story* | all parts of the world | before Egyptian hieroglyphics or Cretan signs or Cyprian syllabaries | long *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 2 | **invent** | past · passive |  | alphabets |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

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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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