---
title: He did not know how to fight the magician, but with a great effort s… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He did not know how to fight the magician, but with a great effort struggled to open his Black Book, which told him what spells to use. Who acts: Virgilius, Black Book. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He did not know how to fight the magician, but with a great effort struggled to open his Black Book, which told him what spells to use.

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**Who acts:** Virgilius, Black Book · **What happens:** not know, fight, struggle, open, tell, spell · **To what, where:** magician, Black Book, Virgilius · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Virgilius, Black Book), 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:pg641:43:45
# text = He did not know how to fight the magician, but with a great effort struggled to open his Black Book, which told him what spells to use.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	effort	effort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
16	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Book	Book	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl:relcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	27	nsubj	_	_
27	spells	spell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Virgilius |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fight** | to-infinitive |  | the magician |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent magician=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **struggle** | past | Virgilius *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a great effort | tree rules |
| 4 | **open** | to-infinitive | Virgilius *not said here* | Virgilius's Black Book |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location book=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Virgilius's Black Book |  | Virgilius |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **spell** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **use** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=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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