---
title: They all laughed him to scorn, because he was so stupid, feeling sur… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They all laughed him to scorn, because he was so stupid, feeling sure he wouldn’t do anything. Who acts: sons, end. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Norka, sentence 15

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They all laughed him to scorn, because he was so stupid, feeling sure he wouldn’t do anything.

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**Who acts:** sons, end · **What happens:** laugh, scorn, be, feel, not do · **To what, where:** end, anything

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, end), 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:pg540:13:15
# text = They all laughed him to scorn, because he was so stupid, feeling sure he wouldn’t do anything.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	scorn	scorn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	feeling	feel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
15	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
20	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | sons *= son* | end |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **scorn** | to-infinitive | sons *= son* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | end |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **feel** | gerund | end *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **do** | would | end | anything |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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