---
title: Now the youngest brother began to ask him how things went on. " — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the youngest brother began to ask him how things went on. " Who acts: youngest brother, things. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 13, sentence 45

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Now the youngest brother began to ask him how things went on. "

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**Who acts:** youngest brother, things · **What happens:** begin, ask, go on · **To what, where:** Prince

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youngest brother, things), 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:pg14241:27:45
# text = Now the youngest brother began to ask him how things went on. "
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
12	on	on	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the youngest brother |  |  |  | now |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | the youngest brother *not said here* |  | Prince |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **go on** | past | things |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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