---
title: And even contrived to work the seals off the original letter and to… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And even contrived to work the seals off the original letter and to fix them to this, so that no one could tell, unless they examined it closely, that it had ever been opened. Who acts: one, questions. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 164

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And even contrived to work the seals off the original letter and to fix them to this, so that no one could tell, unless they examined it closely, that it had ever been opened.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** one, questions · **What happens:** contrive, work, fix, tell, examine, open · **To what, where:** seals, questions, letter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (one, questions), 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:pg3282:33:164
# text = And even contrived to work the seals off the original letter and to fix them to this, so that no one could tell, unless they examined it closely, that it had ever been opened.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	even	even	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	contrived	contrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	seals	seal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	off	off	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	original	original	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	fix	fix	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	24	mark	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	examined	examine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
35	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	37	advmod	_	_
36	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	opened	open	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **contrive** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **work** | to-infinitive |  | the seals |  |  |  | off the original letter | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent seal=Material |
| 3 | **fix** | to-infinitive |  | questions *= question* |  |  |  | to this | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent they=Patient to this=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | no one |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **examine** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | questions *= question* | letter |  |  |  | closely *property* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 6 | **open** | past · perfect · passive |  | letter |  |  | ever |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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