---
title: ‘Very ill, little sir, replied the father, to Jem’s surprise, for he… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Very ill, little sir, replied the father, to Jem’s surprise, for he did not seem to know him. Who acts: ill little sir, sir, Jem. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 7

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‘Very ill, little sir, replied the father, to Jem’s surprise, for he did not seem to know him.

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**Who acts:** ill little sir, sir, Jem · **What happens:** reply, not seem, know, surprise · **To what, where:** father, surprise, sir

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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 (ill little sir, sir, Jem), 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:pg641:27:7
# text = ‘Very ill, little sir, replied the father, to Jem’s surprise, for he did not seem to know him.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	Jem	Jem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | ill little sir | the father | Jem's surprise |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent father=Topic to surprise=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **seem** | past · do-support | sir |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **know** | to-infinitive | sir *not said here* | sir |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 4 | **surprise** |  | Jem |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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