---
title: Nobody can write a new fairy tale; you can only mix up and dress up… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Nobody can write a new fairy tale; you can only mix up and dress up the old, old stories, and put the characters into new dresses, as Miss Thackeray did so well in ‘Five Old Friends.’ Who acts: Nobody, you, Miss. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 42

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Nobody can write a new fairy tale; you can only mix up and dress up the old, old stories, and put the characters into new dresses, as Miss Thackeray did so well in ‘Five Old Friends.’

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**Who acts:** Nobody, you, Miss · **What happens:** write, mix up, dress up, put, do · **To what, where:** new fairy tale, old old stories, characters, new dresses

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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 (Nobody, you, Miss), 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:pg3454:1:42
# text = Nobody can write a new fairy tale; you can only mix up and dress up the old, old stories, and put the characters into new dresses, as Miss Thackeray did so well in ‘Five Old Friends.’
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	mix	mix	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	dress	dress	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	dresses	dress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	Miss	Miss	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
33	Thackeray	Thackeray	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	flat	_	_
34	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
35	so	so	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	Five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
40	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	Friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | can | Nobody | a new fairy tale |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Theme |
| 2 | **mix up** | can | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **dress up** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the old old stories |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Patient |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive |  | the characters |  | new dresses |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent character=Goal |
| 5 | **do** | past | Miss |  |  |  |  | in Five Old Friends; well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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