---
title: Who were the first authors of them nobody knows--probably the first… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Who were the first authors of them nobody knows--probably the first men and women. Who acts: nobody. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy Book, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Violet Fairy Book, sentence 14

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Who were the first authors of them nobody knows--probably the first men and women.

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**Who acts:** nobody · **What happens:** be, know · **To what, where:** first authors

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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 (nobody), 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:pg641:1:14
# text = Who were the first authors of them nobody knows--probably the first men and women.
1	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	amod	_	_
5	authors	author	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	_
8	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	nsubj	_	_
9	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	14	amod	_	_
14	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the first authors and the first men and women |  |  |  | of tales *= tale* | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | present | nobody | the first authors and the first men and women *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer author=Stimulus |

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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 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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