--- title: Their tastes remain like the tastes of their naked ancestors, thousa… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Their tastes remain like the tastes of their naked ancestors, thousands of years ago, and they seem to like fairy tales better than history, poetry, geography, or arithmetic, just as grown-up people like novels better than anything else. Who acts: tastes, people. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/1/20/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/1/) / 20 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Violet Fairy Book, sentence 20 Their tastes remain like the tastes of their naked ancestors, thousands of years ago, and they seem to like fairy tales better than history, poetry, geography, or arithmetic, just as grown-up people like novels better than anything else. **Who acts:** tastes, people · **What happens:** remain, seem, like, grow up, taste · **To what, where:** fairy tales, people, naked ancestors 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 (tastes, people), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:1:20 # text = Their tastes remain like the tastes of their naked ancestors, thousands of years ago, and they seem to like fairy tales better than history, poetry, geography, or arithmetic, just as grown-up people like novels better than anything else. 1 Their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 2 nmod:poss _ _ 2 tastes taste NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 nsubj _ _ 3 remain remain VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 like like ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 tastes taste NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 obl _ _ 7 of of ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 8 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 9 naked naked ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 10 ancestors ancestor NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 12 thousands thousand NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 conj _ _ 13 of of ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nmod _ _ 15 ago ago ADV RB _ 12 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 18 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 19 seem seem VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 20 to to PART TO _ 21 mark _ _ 21 like like VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 19 xcomp _ _ 22 fairy fairy NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 compound _ _ 23 tales tale NOUN NNS Number=Plur 21 obj _ _ 24 better well ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 21 advmod _ _ 25 than than ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 26 history history NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 28 poetry poetry NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 30 geography geography NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 or or CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 33 arithmetic arithmetic ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 35 just just ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 36 as as ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 37 grown grow VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 33 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 up up ADP RP _ 37 compound:prt _ _ 40 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 37 obj _ _ 41 like like ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 42 novels novel NOUN NNS Number=Plur 40 nmod _ _ 43 better well ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 37 advmod _ _ 44 than than ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 45 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 43 obl _ _ 46 else else ADV RB _ 45 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 47 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **remain** | present | people's tastes | | | | | like the tastes of people's naked ancestors and thousands of years | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **seem** | present | people | | | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | | 3 | **like** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | fairy tales | | | | well *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot tale=Theme | | 4 | **grow up** | participle | people's tastes *not said here* | people | | | | like novels; well *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location people=Theme | | 5 | **taste** | | people | | | | | | nom taste «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | | 6 | **taste** | | | people's naked ancestors | | | | | nom taste «cognition transitive»: of=patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/1/19/) - next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/1/21/) - ↑ back to [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/1/)