---
title: ‘We know not, O mighty emperor,’ answered the servant, ‘but they mus… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘We know not, O mighty emperor,’ answered the servant, ‘but they must surely be akin to you, for they have the strength of lions, and have scattered the guards at the gate. Who acts: We, mighty emperor, boys. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars, with 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Boys With the Golden Stars, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘We know not, O mighty emperor,’ answered the servant, ‘but they must surely be akin to you, for they have the strength of lions, and have scattered the guards at the gate.

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**Who acts:** We, mighty emperor, boys · **What happens:** not know, answer, be, have, scatter · **To what, where:** servant, you, strength, guards, gate

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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 (We, mighty emperor, 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:pg641:35:104
# text = ‘We know not, O mighty emperor,’ answered the servant, ‘but they must surely be akin to you, for they have the strength of lions, and have scattered the guards at the gate.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	_
7	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	akin	akin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	lions	lion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	_
38	at	at	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | mighty emperor | the servant |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent servant=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | must | boys *= boy* |  | you |  |  | akin, surely *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | present | boys *= boy* | the strength of lions |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strength=Patient |
| 5 | **scatter** | present · perfect | boys *= boy* *not said here* | the guards |  | the gate |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination-Conative»: agent=Agent guard=Theme at gate=Destination |

<!-- .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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