---
title: But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut about with stone knives and frightened with sham bogies all for their good their parents say and I think they would rather go to school, if they had their choice, and take their chance of being birched and bullied. Who acts: snakes
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/1/10/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut about with stone knives and frightened with sham bogies all for their good their parents say and I think they would rather go to school, if they had their choice, and take their chance of being birched and bullied.

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**Who acts:** snakes, good parents, I · **What happens:** grow up, be, cut about, frighten, say, think · **To what, where:** big boys, snakes, school, choice, chance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, 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 (snakes, good parents, I), 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:pg3282:1:10
# text = But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut about with stone knives and frightened with sham bogies all for their good their parents say and I think they would rather go to school, if they had their choice, and take their chance of being birched and bullied.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	grow	grow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	advcl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	cruelly	cruelly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
17	about	about	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	knives	knife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	sham	sham	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	bogies	bogie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
26	all	all	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
27	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
29	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
36	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	ccomp	_	_
40	to	to	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	parataxis	_	_
46	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	choice	choice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	conj	_	_
51	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	_
53	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
54	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	55	aux:pass	_	_
55	birched	birch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	52	acl	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
57	bullied	bully	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	55	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow up** | present | snakes *= snake* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | snakes *= snake* *not said here* | big boys and girls |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cut about** | present · passive |  | snakes *= snake* |  |  |  | with stone knives; about, cruelly *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient with knife=Instrument |
| 4 | **frighten** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with sham bogies | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | snakes's good parents |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 7 | **go** | would | snakes *= snake* |  |  | school |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to school=Initial\_Location |
| 8 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | snakes *= snake* | snakes's choice |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent choice=Patient |
| 9 | **take** | infinitive | snakes's good parents *not said here* | snakes's chance |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Theme |
| 10 | **birch** | gerund · passive |  | snakes's chance *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP» |
| 11 | **bully** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent |
| 12 | **chance** |  | snakes *= snake* |  |  |  |  |  | nom chance «state intransitive»: 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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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