---
title: Without thinking that they had nothing to defend themselves with, sh… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Without thinking that they had nothing to defend themselves with, should the bear turn and attack them, the boys gave chase. Who acts: bear, servants, boys. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/14/71/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Without thinking that they had nothing to defend themselves with, should the bear turn and attack them, the boys gave chase.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bear, servants, boys · **What happens:** think, have, defend, turn, attack, give · **To what, where:** nothing, servants, chase · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bear, servants, boys), 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:pg3282:14:71
# text = Without thinking that they had nothing to defend themselves with, should the bear turn and attack them, the boys gave chase.
1	Without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	defend	defend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
9	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	attack	attack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
23	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | the bear *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | servants *= servant* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 3 | **defend** | to-infinitive | servants *= servant* *not said here* | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **turn** | should | the bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **attack** | infinitive | the bear *not said here* | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 6 | **give** | past | the boys | chase |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chase=Theme |

<!-- .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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