---
title: But if nobody could tell the exact extent of his sovereignty everybo… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But if nobody could tell the exact extent of his sovereignty everybody was aware that the emperor’s right eye laughed, while his left eye wept. Who acts: nobody, everybody, right eye, left eye. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, with its dependency t
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But if nobody could tell the exact extent of his sovereignty everybody was aware that the emperor’s right eye laughed, while his left eye wept.

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**Who acts:** nobody, everybody, right eye, left eye · **What happens:** tell, be, laugh, weep, extend · **To what, where:** exact extent, sovereignty · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nobody, everybody, right eye, left eye), 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:pg641:19:3
# text = But if nobody could tell the exact extent of his sovereignty everybody was aware that the emperor’s right eye laughed, while his left eye wept.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	exact	exact	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	extent	extent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	sovereignty	sovereignty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | nobody | the exact extent of emperor's sovereignty |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent extent=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | past | everybody | emperor's sovereignty *not said here* |  |  |  | aware *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the emperor's right eye |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **weep** | past | emperor's left eye |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **extend** |  |  | emperor's sovereignty |  |  |  |  | nom extent «state transitive»: of=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 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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