---
title: These fairy tales are the oldest stories in the world, and as they w… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: These fairy tales are the oldest stories in the world, and as they were first made by men who were childlike for their own amusement, so they amuse children still, and also grown-up people who have not forgotten how they once were children. Who acts: fairy tales, men, tales, grown people. A sentence
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
These fairy tales are the oldest stories in the world, and as they were first made by men who were childlike for their own amusement, so they amuse children still, and also grown-up people who have not forgotten how they once were children.

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**Who acts:** fairy tales, men, tales, grown people · **What happens:** be, make, amuse, grow up, not forget · **To what, where:** oldest stories, world, tales, children

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Green Fairy Book. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fairy tales, men, tales, grown people), 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:pg7277:1:16
# text = These fairy tales are the oldest stories in the world, and as they were first made by men who were childlike for their own amusement, so they amuse children still, and also grown-up people who have not forgotten how they once were children.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	fairy	fairy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	oldest	old	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	amod	_	_
7	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	17	advmod	_	_
17	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	childlike	childlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	amuse	amuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
31	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
32	still	still	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
35	also	also	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	up	up	ADP	RP	_	36	compound:prt	_	_
39	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
40	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
41	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
42	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	43	advmod	_	_
43	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	39	acl:relcl	_	_
44	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	48	advmod	_	_
45	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
46	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	48	advmod	_	_
47	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	cop	_	_
48	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | this fairy tales | the oldest stories |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | past · passive | men | tales *= tale* |  |  |  | first *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Product |
| 3 | **is** | past | men |  |  |  |  | for men's own amusement; childlike *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **amuse** | present | tales *= tale* | children |  |  | still | grown people *obl* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus child=Experiencer |
| 5 | **grow up** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **forget** | present · perfect | grown people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is a** | past | tales *= tale* | children |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **amuse** |  | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | nom amusement «feeling 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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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