---
title: “It is impossible to fight them—they are twelve to two,” whispered G… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is impossible to fight them—they are twelve to two,” whispered Geirald, stopping his horse in the path. Who acts: robbers, Geirald. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“It is impossible to fight them—they are twelve to two,” whispered Geirald, stopping his horse in the path.

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**Who acts:** robbers, Geirald · **What happens:** be, fight, whisper, stop · **To what, where:** robbers, twelve, horse, path · **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 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (robbers, Geirald), 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:pg3282:12:90
# text = “It is impossible to fight them—they are twelve to two,” whispered Geirald, stopping his horse in the path.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
16	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	Geirald	Geirald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	stopping	stop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fight** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | robbers *= robber* | twelve |  |  |  | to two | tree rules |
| 4 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | Geirald |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **stop** | gerund | Geirald *not said here* | Geirald's horse |  | the path |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality horse=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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