---
title: The emperor was not much pleased at the thought of such a match for… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The emperor was not much pleased at the thought of such a match for his only child, but being very polite, he only said: Who acts: emperor, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Knife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Enchanted Knife, sentence 3

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The emperor was not much pleased at the thought of such a match for his only child, but being very polite, he only said:

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**Who acts:** emperor, man · **What happens:** be, say, think · **To what, where:** thought, match · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Knife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, man), 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:pg641:23:3
# text = The emperor was not much pleased at the thought of such a match for his only child, but being very polite, he only said:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	13	det:predet	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	match	match	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	polite	polite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the emperor |  |  | the thought of such match for man's only child |  | pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | gerund | the emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | polite *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **think** |  |  | such match for man's only child |  |  |  |  | nom thought «cognition 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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