---
title: The lady’s name was Febilla, and her family was noble, and her face… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The lady’s name was Febilla, and her family was noble, and her face fairer than any in Rome, but she only mocked Virgilius, and was always playing tricks upon him. Who acts: name, family, face, lady. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 53

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The lady’s name was Febilla, and her family was noble, and her face fairer than any in Rome, but she only mocked Virgilius, and was always playing tricks upon him.

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**Who acts:** name, family, face, lady · **What happens:** be, mock, play, name · **To what, where:** Febilla, Virgilius, tricks

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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 (name, family, face, lady), 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:pg641:43:53
# text = The lady’s name was Febilla, and her family was noble, and her face fairer than any in Rome, but she only mocked Virgilius, and was always playing tricks upon him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	Febilla	Febilla	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	noble	noble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fairer	fair	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	parataxis	_	_
18	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	obl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	mocked	mock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
27	Virgilius	Virgilius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	32	advmod	_	_
32	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
33	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	_
34	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the lady's name | Febilla |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Febilla's family |  |  |  |  | noble *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **mock** | past | face | Virgilius |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent virgilius=Theme |
| 4 | **play** | past · progressive | face *not said here* | tricks |  |  |  | upon Virgilius; always *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trick=Theme |
| 5 | **name** |  | the lady |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «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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