---
title: They placed two weaving-looms, and began to do as if they were worki… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They placed two weaving-looms, and began to do as if they were working, but they had not the least thing on the looms. Who acts: impostors. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They placed two weaving-looms, and began to do as if they were working, but they had not the least thing on the looms.

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**Who acts:** impostors · **What happens:** place, weave, begin, do, work, have · **To what, where:** two, looms, least thing

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes(4). (4) Andersen. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (impostors), 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:pg640:6:11
# text = They placed two weaving-looms, and began to do as if they were working, but they had not the least thing on the looms.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	obj	_	_
4	weaving	weave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	looms	loom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	working	work	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	amod	_	_
24	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	looms	loom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past | impostors *= impostor* | two |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent two=Theme |
| 2 | **weave** | gerund | impostors *= impostor* *not said here* | looms |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent loom=Product |
| 3 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **work** | past · progressive | impostors *= impostor* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **have** | past | impostors *= impostor* | the least thing |  | the looms |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Patient |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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