---
title: ‘Two boys who want to force their way in,’ replied one of the servan… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Two boys who want to force their way in,’ replied one of the servants, approaching the emperor. Who acts: Two boys. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Boys With the Golden Stars, sentence 100

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‘Two boys who want to force their way in,’ replied one of the servants, approaching the emperor.

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**Who acts:** Two boys · **What happens:** want, force, reply, approach · **To what, where:** way, one, emperor

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Two boys), 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:pg641:35:100
# text = ‘Two boys who want to force their way in,’ replied one of the servants, approaching the emperor.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	force	force	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | present | Two boys |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **force** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Two boys *not said here* | boys's way |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Recipient |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Two boys | one of the servants |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent one=Topic |
| 4 | **approach** | gerund | Two boys *not said here* | the emperor |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent emperor=Theme |

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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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