---
title: ‘Young gentleman,’ was the answer, ‘your appearance is hardly one to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Young gentleman,’ was the answer, ‘your appearance is hardly one to be vain of, and there is no need to waste your time looking in a glass. Who acts: Young gentleman, appearance, need, time. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its depen
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Young gentleman,’ was the answer, ‘your appearance is hardly one to be vain of, and there is no need to waste your time looking in a glass.

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**Who acts:** Young gentleman, appearance, need, time · **What happens:** be, waste, look · **To what, where:** answer

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, 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 (Young gentleman, appearance, need, time), 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:pg641:27:43
# text = ‘Young gentleman,’ was the answer, ‘your appearance is hardly one to be vain of, and there is no need to waste your time looking in a glass.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
14	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
18	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
23	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	need	need	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	waste	waste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Young gentleman | the answer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | your appearance |  |  |  |  | vain *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | present | no need |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **waste** | to-infinitive | no need *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **look** | gerund | your time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in a glass | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in glass=Theme |

<!-- .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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