---
title: But the sultan did not believe his words, and said; ‘This second yea… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the sultan did not believe his words, and said; ‘This second year I have eaten no dates, because of my sons. Who acts: sultan, I. 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 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the sultan did not believe his words, and said; ‘This second year I have eaten no dates, because of my sons.

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**Who acts:** sultan, I · **What happens:** not believe, say, eat, word · **To what, where:** words, dates · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, I), 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:pg641:29:65
# text = But the sultan did not believe his words, and said; ‘This second year I have eaten no dates, because of my sons.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
15	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	16	amod	_	_
16	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	26	case	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | past · do-support | the sultan | sultan's words |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **eat** | present · perfect | I | no dates |  |  | year | because my sons | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent date=Patient |
| 4 | **word** |  | sultan |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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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