---
title: Rich merchants and foreign princes presented themselves one after th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Rich merchants and foreign princes presented themselves one after the other, so that some days the number of them was quite annoying; but, though they could all produce magnificent pearls, not one of them could perform even the simplest of the tasks set them. Who acts: Rich merchants, number, mercha
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 10

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Rich merchants and foreign princes presented themselves one after the other, so that some days the number of them was quite annoying; but, though they could all produce magnificent pearls, not one of them could perform even the simplest of the tasks set them.

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**Who acts:** Rich merchants, number, merchants, magnificent pearls, tasks · **What happens:** present, be, produce, perform, set · **To what, where:** merchants, days, simplest, pearls

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rich merchants, number, merchants, magnificent pearls), 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:pg641:24:10
# text = Rich merchants and foreign princes presented themselves one after the other, so that some days the number of them was quite annoying; but, though they could all produce magnificent pearls, not one of them could perform even the simplest of the tasks set them.
1	Rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	merchants	merchant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	foreign	foreign	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
6	presented	present	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	obj	_	_
9	after	after	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	fixed	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	annoying	annoying	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	all	all	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	produce	produce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
32	magnificent	magnificent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	_
36	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	appos	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	_
39	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	perform	perform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	parataxis	_	_
41	even	even	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	simplest	simple	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	40	obj	_	_
44	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	tasks	task	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	_
47	set	set	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	advcl	_	_
48	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **present** | past | Rich merchants and foreign princes | merchants *= merchant* |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the number of merchants | some days *not said here* |  |  |  | annoying *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **produce** | could | merchants *= merchant* |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **perform** | could | magnificent pearls | the simplest |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent simple=Theme |
| 5 | **set** | present | the tasks | pearls *= pearl* |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient they=Result |

<!-- .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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