---
title: The emperor, however, was too angry to listen to anything, so Virgil… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The emperor, however, was too angry to listen to anything, so Virgilius, whose patience was exhausted, feasted his own followers in the presence of the starving host, who could not stir hand or foot. Who acts: emperor, Virgilius, starving host. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, V
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The emperor, however, was too angry to listen to anything, so Virgilius, whose patience was exhausted, feasted his own followers in the presence of the starving host, who could not stir hand or foot.

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**Who acts:** emperor, Virgilius, starving host · **What happens:** be, listen, exhaust, feast, starve, not stir · **To what, where:** patience, own followers, presence, hand

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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 (emperor, Virgilius, starving host), 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:pg641:43:42
# text = The emperor, however, was too angry to listen to anything, so Virgilius, whose patience was exhausted, feasted his own followers in the presence of the starving host, who could not stir hand or foot.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
15	Virgilius	Virgilius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	exhausted	exhaust	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
22	feasted	feast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	followers	follower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	amod	_	_
32	host	host	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	37	nsubj	_	_
35	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
37	stir	stir	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl:relcl	_	_
38	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
39	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the emperor |  |  |  |  | angry, however *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **listen** | to-infinitive | the emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to anything | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to anything=Theme |
| 3 | **exhaust** | past · passive |  | patience |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **feast** | past | Virgilius | emperor's own followers |  | the presence of the starving host |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **starve** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **stir** | could | the starving host | hand or foot |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hand=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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