---
title: And the sultan looked at the four sons that were left him, and promi… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the sultan looked at the four sons that were left him, and promised rich gifts to whichever of them would bring him the dates from the tree. Who acts: sultan, rich gifts. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the sultan looked at the four sons that were left him, and promised rich gifts to whichever of them would bring him the dates from the tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sultan, rich gifts · **What happens:** look, leave, promise, bring · **To what, where:** four sons, dates, sultan, tree · **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, rich gifts), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:29:67
# text = And the sultan looked at the four sons that were left him, and promised rich gifts to whichever of them would bring him the dates from the tree.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	gifts	gift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	whichever	whichever	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the sultan |  |  |  |  | at the four sons | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at son=Theme |
| 2 | **leave** | past · passive |  | the four sons |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme he=Attribute |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | the sultan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **bring** | would | rich gifts to whichever of sons | the dates | sultan | the tree |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination date=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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