---
title: ‘It seems to me they are trying to rule him and the kingdom as well,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It seems to me they are trying to rule him and the kingdom as well, and the old man says they are not fit to do it.’ Who acts: It, Costan, old man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/20/126/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Fairy of the Dawn, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/20/) / 126

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘It seems to me they are trying to rule him and the kingdom as well, and the old man says they are not fit to do it.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, Costan, old man · **What happens:** seem, try, rule, say, not be, do · **To what, where:** me, brother, kingdom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, Costan, old man), 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:pg641:20:126
# text = ‘It seems to me they are trying to rule him and the kingdom as well, and the old man says they are not fit to do it.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	rule	rule	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
15	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	10	advmod	_	_
16	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	fit	fit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | It |  | me |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | present · progressive | Costan |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **rule** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Costan *not said here* | brother |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Result |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** | present | Costan |  |  |  |  | fit *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive | Costan *not said here* | kingdom |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/20/125/)
- next →: [sentence 127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/20/127/)
- ↑ back to [The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/20/)