---
title: A father had two sons, of whom the eldest was clever and bright, and… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A father had two sons, of whom the eldest was clever and bright, and always knew what he was about; but the youngest was stupid, and couldn’t learn or understand anything. Who acts: father, eldest, youngest. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A father had two sons, of whom the eldest was clever and bright, and always knew what he was about; but the youngest was stupid, and couldn’t learn or understand anything.

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**Who acts:** father, eldest, youngest · **What happens:** have, be, know, not learn, understand · **To what, where:** two sons, anything

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, eldest, youngest), 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:pg503:13:1
# text = A father had two sons, of whom the eldest was clever and bright, and always knew what he was about; but the youngest was stupid, and couldn’t learn or understand anything.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	obj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	18	advmod	_	_
18	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	about	about	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	learn	learn	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	33	conj	_	_
36	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a father | two sons |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the eldest |  |  |  |  | clever *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the eldest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | past |  |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is** | past | the youngest |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **learn** | could |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **understand** | infinitive |  | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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