---
title: He was sitting on his throne, surrounded by the sons of the other em… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was sitting on his throne, surrounded by the sons of the other emperors, who served him as pages. Who acts: boy, other emperors. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, sentence 45

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He was sitting on his throne, surrounded by the sons of the other emperors, who served him as pages.

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**Who acts:** boy, other emperors · **What happens:** sit, surround, serve · **To what, where:** throne, boy

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, other emperors), 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:pg641:39:45
# text = He was sitting on his throne, surrounded by the sons of the other emperors, who served him as pages.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:agent	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	emperors	emperor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	served	serve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	pages	page	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | boy |  |  | boy's throne |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on throne=Location |
| 2 | **surround** | participle | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **serve** | past | the other emperors | boy |  |  |  | as pages | vn spend\_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent he=Duration as page=Attribute |

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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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