---
title: In vain his father tried to persuade him that his task was hopeless,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In vain his father tried to persuade him that his task was hopeless, and that other girls were to be found as beautiful as this one. Who acts: task, prince. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In vain his father tried to persuade him that his task was hopeless, and that other girls were to be found as beautiful as this one.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** task, prince · **What happens:** try, persuade, be, find, task · **To what, where:** prince, other girls

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (task, prince), 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:pg641:7:28
# text = In vain his father tried to persuade him that his task was hopeless, and that other girls were to be found as beautiful as this one.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
5	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	persuade	persuade	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	hopeless	hopeless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past |  |  |  |  |  | in prince's vain father | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **persuade** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | prince |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | prince's task |  |  |  |  | hopeless *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **find** | past · passive |  | other girls |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 5 | **task** |  | prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act 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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