---
title: Officers of the bodyguard were often sent on all sorts of secret and… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Officers of the bodyguard were often sent on all sorts of secret and difficult errands, and such errands had a curious way of becoming necessary when Nur Mahomed was on duty. Who acts: such errands, curious way, Nur. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/103/)

<!-- 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/) / [Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronge…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/) / 103

# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Officers of the bodyguard were often sent on all sorts of secret and difficult errands, and such errands had a curious way of becoming necessary when Nur Mahomed was on duty.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** such errands, curious way, Nur · **What happens:** send, have, become, be, sort · **To what, where:** Officers, sorts, curious way, duty, secret

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (such errands, curious way, Nur), 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:pg3282:33:103
# text = Officers of the bodyguard were often sent on all sorts of secret and difficult errands, and such errands had a curious way of becoming necessary when Nur Mahomed was on duty.
1	Officers	officer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bodyguard	bodyguard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
6	often	often	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	errands	errand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	errands	errand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	becoming	become	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
26	necessary	necessary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
28	Nur	Nur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
29	Mahomed	Mahomed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	flat	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past · passive |  | Officers of the bodyguard |  | all sorts of secret and difficult errands |  | often *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | such errands | a curious way |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 3 | **become** | gerund | a curious way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | necessary *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | Nur |  |  | duty |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **sort** |  |  | secret |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/102/)
- next →: [sentence 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/104/)
- ↑ back to [Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/)