---
title: And the sultan replied, ‘A son like you is only good for eating and… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the sultan replied, ‘A son like you is only good for eating and sleeping. Who acts: sultan. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 33

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And the sultan replied, ‘A son like you is only good for eating and sleeping.

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**Who acts:** sultan · **What happens:** reply, be, eat, sleep · **To what, where:** sultan

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sultan), 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:pg641:29:33
# text = And the sultan replied, ‘A son like you is only good for eating and sleeping.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
4	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle |  | the sultan and a son like you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | the sultan and a son like you |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **eat** | gerund | the sultan and a son like you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sleep** | gerund | the sultan and a son like you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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