---
title: This seemed to everybody present rather unfair, but no one liked to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This seemed to everybody present rather unfair, but no one liked to be the first to say so, and Jesper had to put the best face he could on the matter, and begin his story. Who acts: This, Jesper. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its dependency 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 142

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This seemed to everybody present rather unfair, but no one liked to be the first to say so, and Jesper had to put the best face he could on the matter, and begin his story.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** This, Jesper · **What happens:** seem, like, be, say, have, put · **To what, where:** one, best face, story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (This, Jesper), 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:pg641:24:142
# text = This seemed to everybody present rather unfair, but no one liked to be the first to say so, and Jesper had to put the best face he could on the matter, and begin his story.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	5	compound	_	_
5	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	unfair	unfair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	xcomp	_	_
12	liked	like	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	Jesper	Jesper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	amod	_	_
28	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | This | no one |  |  |  | to everybody present | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **like** | participle |  | no one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | past | Jesper |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **put** | to-infinitive | Jesper *not said here* | the best face |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent face=Goal |
| 7 | **begin** | infinitive | Jesper *not said here* | Jesper's story |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=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.

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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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