---
title: On being asked who they were, the eldest said, bowing low: — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On being asked who they were, the eldest said, bowing low: Who acts: eldest, brothers. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 78

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On being asked who they were, the eldest said, bowing low:

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**Who acts:** eldest, brothers · **What happens:** ask, be, say, bow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eldest, brothers), 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:pg2435:4:78
# text = On being asked who they were, the eldest said, bowing low:
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	bowing	bow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund · passive | the eldest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V» |
| 2 | **is a** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the eldest |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bow** | gerund | the eldest *not said here* |  |  |  |  | low *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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