---
title: When the dinner was placed before the emperor he found it so nice th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the dinner was placed before the emperor he found it so nice that he ate much more than was good for him. Who acts: two. 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 58

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When the dinner was placed before the emperor he found it so nice that he ate much more than was good for him.

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**Who acts:** two · **What happens:** place, find, eat, be · **To what, where:** dinner, more

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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 (two), 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:pg641:39:58
# text = When the dinner was placed before the emperor he found it so nice that he ate much more than was good for him.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	obj	_	_
19	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **place** | past · passive |  | the dinner |  |  | before the emperor |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme before emperor=Destination |
| 2 | **find** | past | two | dinner |  |  |  | nice *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 3 | **eat** | past | two | more |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | two *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for two; good *property* | tree rules |

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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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