---
title: The brothers were very angry when they heard the story, and declared… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The brothers were very angry when they heard the story, and declared that, if any one were to die, it certainly should not be the robin. Who acts: brothers, one, story. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/8/29/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/8/) / 29

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The brothers were very angry when they heard the story, and declared that, if any one were to die, it certainly should not be the robin.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brothers, one, story · **What happens:** be, hear, declare, die, not be · **To what, where:** story, that, robin

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, one, story), 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:pg3282:8:29
# text = The brothers were very angry when they heard the story, and declared that, if any one were to die, it certainly should not be the robin.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
24	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
25	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	robin	robin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the brothers |  |  |  |  | angry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past | brothers *= brother* | the story |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 3 | **declare** *speech: other* | past |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Attribute |
| 4 | **die** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | any one |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **not** **is a** | should | story | the robin |  |  |  | certainly *property* | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/8/28/)
- next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/8/30/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/8/)