---
title: Now the emperor was accustomed to have his lightest word obeyed, alm… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the emperor was accustomed to have his lightest word obeyed, almost before it was uttered, and he hardly knew how to believe his ears. Who acts: lightest word, emperor. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now the emperor was accustomed to have his lightest word obeyed, almost before it was uttered, and he hardly knew how to believe his ears.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** lightest word, emperor · **What happens:** accustom, have, obey, utter, know, believe · **To what, where:** emperor, lightest word, word, ears

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lightest word, emperor), 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:pg641:43:39
# text = Now the emperor was accustomed to have his lightest word obeyed, almost before it was uttered, and he hardly knew how to believe his ears.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	emperor	emperor	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	accustomed	accustom	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	lightest	light	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	amod	_	_
10	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	uttered	utter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accustom** | past · passive |  | the emperor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | to-infinitive |  | emperor's lightest word |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **obey** | participle | emperor's lightest word *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **utter** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | word |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic |
| 5 | **know** | past | emperor |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **believe** | to-infinitive | emperor *not said here* | emperor's ears |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ear=Stimulus |
| 7 | **word** |  | emperor |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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