---
title: ‘I was born a peasant, and strange bread is always bitter, so it is… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I was born a peasant, and strange bread is always bitter, so it is the same to me whom I serve! Who acts: strange bread, bread, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 48

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‘I was born a peasant, and strange bread is always bitter, so it is the same to me whom I serve!

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**Who acts:** strange bread, bread, I · **What happens:** bear, be, serve · **To what, where:** I, me

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (strange bread, bread, I), 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:pg641:9:48
# text = ‘I was born a peasant, and strange bread is always bitter, so it is the same to me whom I serve!
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	peasant	peasant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
22	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	serve	serve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary peasant=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | present | strange bread |  |  |  |  | always, bitter *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | bread |  | me |  |  | same *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **serve** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Attribute |

<!-- .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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