---
title: The men, who worked under the same master, were quite good friends,… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The men, who worked under the same master, were quite good friends, but the wives were always quarrelling, and the subject they quarrelled most about was—which of the two had the stupidest husband. Who acts: men, wives, subject, two. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fai
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The men, who worked under the same master, were quite good friends, but the wives were always quarrelling, and the subject they quarrelled most about was—which of the two had the stupidest husband.

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**Who acts:** men, wives, subject, two · **What happens:** work, be, quarrell, have · **To what, where:** same master, good friends

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, wives, subject, two), 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:pg3282:29:54
# text = The men, who worked under the same master, were quite good friends, but the wives were always quarrelling, and the subject they quarrelled most about was—which of the two had the stupidest husband.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	under	under	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	wives	wife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	quarrelling	quarrell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	subject	subject	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	quarrelled	quarrell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
28	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	27	advmod	_	_
29	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	stupidest	stupid	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	39	amod	_	_
39	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | past | the men |  |  | the same master |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the men | good friends |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **quarrell** | past · progressive | the wives |  |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **quarrell** | past | the subject |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | past | the subject *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **have** | past | the two | good friends |  |  |  |  | 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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