---
title: ‘This is the wretch who killed our father,’ they said, ‘and we deman… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘This is the wretch who killed our father,’ they said, ‘and we demand that he should die also.’ Who acts: This, wretch, sons, we. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 31

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‘This is the wretch who killed our father,’ they said, ‘and we demand that he should die also.’

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**Who acts:** This, wretch, sons, we, man · **What happens:** be, kill, say, demand, die · **To what, where:** wretch, father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, wretch, sons, we), 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:pg3454:20:31
# text = ‘This is the wretch who killed our father,’ they said, ‘and we demand that he should die also.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wretch	wretch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	‘	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	demand	demand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
23	also	also	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | This | the wretch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** | past | the wretch | our father |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent father=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **demand** *speech: request* | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 5 | **die** | should | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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