---
title: They were all fine handsome young men, who sat their horses as if th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were all fine handsome young men, who sat their horses as if they were part of them, but the finest and handsomest of all was the young emperor himself. Who acts: sisters, fine handsome young men. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars, with its dep
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Boys With the Golden Stars, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were all fine handsome young men, who sat their horses as if they were part of them, but the finest and handsomest of all was the young emperor himself.

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**Who acts:** sisters, fine handsome young men · **What happens:** be, sit · **To what, where:** fine handsome young men, horses, young 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 (sisters, fine handsome young men), 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:pg641:35:9
# text = They were all fine handsome young men, who sat their horses as if they were part of them, but the finest and handsomest of all was the young emperor himself.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
4	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
5	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	25	amod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	handsomest	handsome	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	31	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	obl	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
32	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	31	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | sisters *= sister* | fine handsome young men |  |  |  | all *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | past | fine handsome young men | sisters's horses |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location horse=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  | as part; of horses *= horse* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | fine handsome young men *not said here* | the young emperor |  |  |  | the finest handsomest *obl* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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