---
title: They have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who re… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who really believed that beasts and trees and stones can talk if they choose, and behave kindly or unkindly. Who acts: earliest civilised ancestors, beasts, stories. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy B
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Violet Fairy Book, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who really believed that beasts and trees and stones can talk if they choose, and behave kindly or unkindly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** earliest civilised ancestors, beasts, stories · **What happens:** inherit, civilise, believe, talk, choose, behave · **To what, where:** stories · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy Book. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (earliest civilised ancestors, beasts, stories), 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:pg641:1:11
# text = They have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who really believed that beasts and trees and stones can talk if they choose, and behave kindly or unkindly.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	inherited	inherit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
7	earliest	early	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
8	civilised	civilise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	_
9	ancestors	ancestor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	really	really	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
15	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
20	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	behave	behave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
28	kindly	kindly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	unkindly	unkindly	ADV	RB	_	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **inherit** | present · perfect · passive | our earliest civilised ancestors | stories *= story* |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **civilise** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **believe** | past | our earliest civilised ancestors |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **talk** | can | beasts and trees and stones |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | stories *= story* |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **behave** | infinitive | our earliest civilised ancestors *not said here* |  |  |  |  | kindly *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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