---
title: These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed. Who acts: fairies. 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 clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/46/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/) / 46

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fairies · **What happens:** try, be, preach, succeed

<!-- .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 (fairies), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:1:46
# text = These fairies try to be funny, and fail; or they try to preach, and succeed.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	try	try	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	funny	funny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	fail	fail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	try	try	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	preach	preach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	succeed	succeed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | present | this fairies |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | this fairies *not said here* |  |  |  |  | funny *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **try** | present | fairies *= fairy* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **preach** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | fairies *= fairy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **succeed** | infinitive | fairies *= fairy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/45/)
- next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/47/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/1/)