---
title: But no tune could the chamberlain play, though he was the best flute… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But no tune could the chamberlain play, though he was the best flute player about the court--nothing came but the words, ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’ Who acts: emperor, tune, Emperor Trojan. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan, with it
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But no tune could the chamberlain play, though he was the best flute player about the court--nothing came but the words, ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** emperor, tune, Emperor Trojan · **What happens:** be, come, have · **To what, where:** best flute player, ears

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, tune, Emperor Trojan), 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:pg641:6:27
# text = But no tune could the chamberlain play, though he was the best flute player about the court--nothing came but the words, ‘The Emperor Trojan has goat’s ears.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
2	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	3	det	_	_
3	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	chamberlain	chamberlain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
14	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	player	player	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
16	about	about	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	conj	_	_
21	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	Trojan	Trojan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
31	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | emperor | the best flute player |  |  |  | about the court | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | no tune and the chamberlain play and the best flute player |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | present | the Emperor Trojan | goat's ears |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ear=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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