---
title: The mother-bird then remarked, “Truly, father! you were about to do… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The mother-bird then remarked, “Truly, father! you were about to do a strange thing, and a terrible sin has been averted from you.” Who acts: father. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 92

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The mother-bird then remarked, “Truly, father! you were about to do a strange thing, and a terrible sin has been averted from you.”

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** remark, be, do, avert · **To what, where:** mother bird, strange thing, terrible sin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father), 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:pg3282:4:92
# text = The mother-bird then remarked, “Truly, father! you were about to do a strange thing, and a terrible sin has been averted from you.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	remarked	remark	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Truly	truly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	averted	avert	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remark** *speech: express* | participle · passive |  | the mother bird |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | past | father |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | father *not said here* | a strange thing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **avert** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | a terrible sin |  |  |  | from you | 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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