---
title: They saw at last that there was nothing for it but to carry to the k… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw at last that there was nothing for it but to carry to the king the sad tidings of his beloved daughter’s disappearance. Who acts: playmates, beloved daughter. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/31/21/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/31/) / 21

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They saw at last that there was nothing for it but to carry to the king the sad tidings of his beloved daughter’s disappearance.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** playmates, beloved daughter · **What happens:** see, be, carry, disappear · **To what, where:** nothing, sad tidings, king

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (playmates, beloved daughter), 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:pg3282:31:21
# text = They saw at last that there was nothing for it but to carry to the king the sad tidings of his beloved daughter’s disappearance.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	7	expl	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	obj	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nmod	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	tidings	tiding	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	beloved	beloved	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	disappearance	disappearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | playmates *= playmate* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | nothing |  |  |  | for pool | tree rules |
| 3 | **carry** | to-infinitive | playmates *= playmate* *not said here* | the sad tidings of king's beloved daughter's disappearance | the king |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tiding=Theme to king=Destination |
| 4 | **disappear** |  | king's beloved daughter |  |  |  |  |  | nom disappearance «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/31/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/31/22/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/31/)