---
title: “It is written in the books of fate that he must die, either by a cr… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “It is written in the books of fate that he must die, either by a crocodile, or a serpent, or by a dog. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24, 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/pg3282/24/118/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 118

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“It is written in the books of fate that he must die, either by a crocodile, or a serpent, or by a dog.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** write, die · **To what, where:** child, books, fate

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg3282:24:118
# text = “It is written in the books of fate that he must die, either by a crocodile, or a serpent, or by a dog.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc:preconj	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | child |  | the books of fate |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in book=Destination |
| 2 | **die** *in a quote* | must | king | fate *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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 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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