---
title: I have tried to teach them how to gain the gifts of the good spirits… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I have tried to teach them how to gain the gifts of the good spirits, but none of them would fast long enough, and at last I had to send them away to perform simple, easy little tasks. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I have tried to teach them how to gain the gifts of the good spirits, but none of them would fast long enough, and at last I had to send them away to perform simple, easy little tasks.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** try, teach, gain, have, send away, perform · **To what, where:** gold, gifts, good spirits

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg3282:6:126
# text = I have tried to teach them how to gain the gifts of the good spirits, but none of them would fast long enough, and at last I had to send them away to perform simple, easy little tasks.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	gain	gain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	gifts	gift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	21	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
23	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
24	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	away	away	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	perform	perform	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
37	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
39	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
40	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	tasks	task	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | gold |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **gain** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | the gifts of the good spirits |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gift=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **send away** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | gold |  |  |  | away *property* | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 6 | **perform** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | simple *property* | vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **gift** |  |  | the good spirits |  |  |  |  | nom gift «possession 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.

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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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