---
title: The factor, in surprise, turned round to the nobles and asked if the… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The factor, in surprise, turned round to the nobles and asked if these vermin were not offensive. Who acts: vermin. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Whittington, sentence 39

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The factor, in surprise, turned round to the nobles and asked if these vermin were not offensive.

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**Who acts:** vermin · **What happens:** turn round, ask, not be · **To what, where:** surprise, nobles

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (vermin), 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:pg503:29:39
# text = The factor, in surprise, turned round to the nobles and asked if these vermin were not offensive.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	factor	factor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
8	round	round	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	nobles	noble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
16	vermin	vermin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	offensive	offensive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn round** | participle |  | surprise *not said here* |  | the nobles |  | round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to noble=Trajectory |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | this vermin |  |  |  |  | offensive *property* | tree rules |

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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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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