---
title: But when he told them of his conversation with Hans they did not kno… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when he told them of his conversation with Hans they did not know which was the most foolish, master or man. Who acts: accident, backs. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 91

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But when he told them of his conversation with Hans they did not know which was the most foolish, master or man.

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**Who acts:** accident, backs · **What happens:** tell, not know, be, converse · **To what, where:** backs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (accident, backs), 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:pg641:33:91
# text = But when he told them of his conversation with Hans they did not know which was the most foolish, master or man.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	conversation	conversation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Hans	Han	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	19	advmod	_	_
19	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | accident |  | backs *= back* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | backs *= back* |  |  |  |  | of accident's conversation with Hans | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of conversation=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | foolish *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **converse** |  | accident |  |  |  |  | with Hans | nom conversation «communication intransitive»: poss=agent with=obl |

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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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