---
title: The chief of the bears, the wolves, the foxes, the horses, the cows,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief of the bears, the wolves, the foxes, the horses, the cows, the goats, the sheep, and the reindeer, all received invitations; and as they were not accustomed to weddings they were greatly pleased and flattered, and sent back messages in the politest language that they would certainly be the
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The chief of the bears, the wolves, the foxes, the horses, the cows, the goats, the sheep, and the reindeer, all received invitations; and as they were not accustomed to weddings they were greatly pleased and flattered, and sent back messages in the politest language that they would certainly be there.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** reindeer, invitations · **What happens:** receive, not accustom, be, flatter, send back · **To what, where:** invitations, weddings, messages, politest language

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (reindeer, invitations), 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:pg3282:20:78
# text = The chief of the bears, the wolves, the foxes, the horses, the cows, the goats, the sheep, and the reindeer, all received invitations; and as they were not accustomed to weddings they were greatly pleased and flattered, and sent back messages in the politest language that they would certainly be there.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bears	bear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	foxes	fox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	goats	goat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	reindeer	reindeer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	advmod	_	_
30	received	receive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	invitations	invitation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux:pass	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	accustomed	accustom	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	weddings	wedding	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
41	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
42	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
43	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	acl:relcl	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	flattered	flatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	conj	_	_
50	back	back	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
51	messages	message	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obj	_	_
52	in	in	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	politest	polite	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	55	amod	_	_
55	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	_
56	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	61	mark	_	_
57	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
58	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	61	aux	_	_
59	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	61	advmod	_	_
60	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	61	cop	_	_
61	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	55	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **receive** | past | the reindeer *not said here* | invitations |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent invitation=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **accustom** | past · passive |  | invitations *= invitation* |  |  |  | to weddings | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | invitations *= invitation* | weddings *not said here* |  |  |  | greatly, pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **flatter** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **send back** | past |  | messages |  | the politest language |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent message=Theme in language=Destination |
| 6 | **is** | would | invitations *= invitation* |  |  |  |  | certainly, there *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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