---
title: The emperor, guessing that this was the work of Virgilius, besought… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The emperor, guessing that this was the work of Virgilius, besought him to break the spell. Who acts: this, emperor. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 60

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The emperor, guessing that this was the work of Virgilius, besought him to break the spell.

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**Who acts:** this, emperor · **What happens:** guess, be, beseech, break · **To what, where:** work, Virgilius, spell · **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 (this, emperor), 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:pg641:43:60
# text = The emperor, guessing that this was the work of Virgilius, besought him to break the spell.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	guessing	guess	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	appos	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Virgilius	Virgilius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	besought	beseech	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	spell	spell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | this | the work |  |  |  | of Virgilius | tree rules |
| 3 | **beseech** | past | the emperor | Virgilius |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **break** | to-infinitive | the emperor *not said here* | the spell |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer spell=Patient |

<!-- .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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