--- title: Of course they soon found out about the donkey eating Nur Mahomed’s… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Of course they soon found out about the donkey eating Nur Mahomed’s cabbages, and about the young man’s hot words; but although the lad assured them that he had never said anything about murdering anyone, they replied they were ordered to arrest him, and bring him to take his trial before the king. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/73/) [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/) / 73 # The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 73 Of course they soon found out about the donkey eating Nur Mahomed’s cabbages, and about the young man’s hot words; but although the lad assured them that he had never said anything about murdering anyone, they replied they were ordered to arrest him, and bring him to take his trial before the king. **Who acts:** men, donkey, lad, young man · **What happens:** find out, eat, assure, not say, murder, reply · **To what, where:** cabbages, men, anything, anyone, lad, trial · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (men, donkey, lad, young man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg3282:33:73 # text = Of course they soon found out about the donkey eating Nur Mahomed’s cabbages, and about the young man’s hot words; but although the lad assured them that he had never said anything about murdering anyone, they replied they were ordered to arrest him, and bring him to take his trial before the king. 1 Of of ADP IN ExtPos=ADV 5 advmod _ _ 2 course course NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 fixed _ _ 3 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 4 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 5 advmod _ _ 5 found find VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 out out ADP RP _ 5 compound:prt _ _ 7 about about ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 donkey donkey NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obl _ _ 10 eating eat VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 9 acl _ _ 11 Nur Nur PROPN NNP Number=Sing 14 nmod:poss _ _ 12 Mahomed Mahomed PROPN NNP Number=Sing 11 flat _ SpaceAfter=No 13 ’s 's PART POS _ 11 case _ _ 14 cabbages cabbage NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 17 about about ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 19 young young ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 20 amod _ _ 20 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 21 ’s 's PART POS _ 20 case _ _ 22 hot hot ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 23 words word NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ; ; PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 25 but but CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 26 although although SCONJ IN _ 29 mark _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 lad lad NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 29 assured assure VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 30 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 obj _ _ 31 that that SCONJ IN _ 35 mark _ _ 32 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 33 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 aux _ _ 34 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 35 advmod _ _ 35 said say VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 29 ccomp _ _ 36 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 35 obj _ _ 37 about about SCONJ IN _ 38 mark _ _ 38 murdering murder VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 36 acl _ _ 39 anyone anyone PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 38 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 40 , , PUNCT , _ 42 punct _ _ 41 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 42 nsubj _ _ 42 replied reply VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 43 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 45 nsubj _ _ 44 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 45 aux:pass _ _ 45 ordered order VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 42 ccomp _ _ 46 to to PART TO _ 47 mark _ _ 47 arrest arrest VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 45 xcomp _ _ 48 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 47 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 , , PUNCT , _ 51 punct _ _ 50 and and CCONJ CC _ 51 cc _ _ 51 bring bring VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 conj _ _ 52 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 51 obj _ _ 53 to to PART TO _ 54 mark _ _ 54 take take VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 51 xcomp _ _ 55 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 56 nmod:poss _ _ 56 trial trial NOUN NN Number=Sing 54 obj _ _ 57 before before ADP IN _ 59 case _ _ 58 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 59 det _ _ 59 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 54 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 60 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **find out** | past | men *= man* | | | | | about the donkey; about the young man's hot words; soon *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about donkey=Topic | | 2 | **eat** | gerund | the donkey *not said here* | Nur's cabbages | | | | | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cabbage=Patient | | 3 | **assure** | past | the lad | men *= man* | | | | | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient that S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | | 4 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | lad | anything | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent anything=Topic | | 5 | **murder** | gerund | | anyone | | | | | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anyone=Patient | | 6 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | men *= man* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 7 | **order** | past · passive | | men *= man* | | | | | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic | | 8 | **arrest** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | lad | | | | | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient | | 9 | **bring** | infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | lad | | | | | tree rules | | 10 | **take** | to-infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | lad's trial | | | before the king | | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent trial=Theme before king=Destination | | 11 | **word** | | the young man | | | | | | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent | | 12 | **try** | | lad | | | | | | nom trial «act transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/72/) - next →: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/74/) - ↑ back to [Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/33/)