---
title: And his father answered, ‘Ah, six were of no use, and where they fai… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And his father answered, ‘Ah, six were of no use, and where they failed, will you succeed?’ Who acts: father, six, sons, you. 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 85

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And his father answered, ‘Ah, six were of no use, and where they failed, will you succeed?’

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**Who acts:** father, six, sons, you · **What happens:** answer, be, fail, succeed · **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 (father, six, sons, you), 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:pg641:29:85
# text = And his father answered, ‘Ah, six were of no use, and where they failed, will you succeed?’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
16	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	succeed	succeed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | am's father |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | six |  |  |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 3 | **fail** | past | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **succeed** | future | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «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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