---
title: They said they were peris, and that their king had blinded them in h… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They said they were peris, and that their king had blinded them in his anger and had left them in the well alone. Who acts: schemes, king. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 44

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They said they were peris, and that their king had blinded them in his anger and had left them in the well alone.

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**Who acts:** schemes, king · **What happens:** say, be, blind, leave, anger · **To what, where:** peris, schemes, anger, well · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (schemes, king), 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:pg3282:5:44
# text = They said they were peris, and that their king had blinded them in his anger and had left them in the well alone.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	peris	peri	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	blinded	blind	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	anger	anger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | schemes *= scheme* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | schemes *= scheme* | peris |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **blind** | past · perfect | schemes's king | schemes *= scheme* |  | king's anger |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **leave** | past · perfect | schemes's king *not said here* | schemes *= scheme* |  | the well |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme in well=Location |
| 5 | **anger** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom anger «feeling 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.

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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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