--- title: The eldest laughed when he heard this, and thought to himself: “Good… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The eldest laughed when he heard this, and thought to himself: “Good heavens! what a ninny my brother is! he’ll never come to any good; as the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.” Who acts: eldest, father, brother, tree. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/13/11/) [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 Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Lea…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/13/) / 11 # The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 11 The eldest laughed when he heard this, and thought to himself: “Good heavens! what a ninny my brother is! he’ll never come to any good; as the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.” **Who acts:** eldest, father, brother, tree · **What happens:** laugh, hear, think, be, not come, bend · **To what, where:** this, father, ninny, good, twig, tree · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (eldest, father, brother, tree), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:13:11 # text = The eldest laughed when he heard this, and thought to himself: “Good heavens! what a ninny my brother is! he’ll never come to any good; as the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.” 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 eldest eld ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 3 nsubj _ _ 3 laughed laugh VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 6 advmod _ _ 5 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 6 heard hear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 advcl _ _ 7 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 6 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 10 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 10 thought think VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 3 parataxis _ _ 11 to to ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 12 himself himself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 10 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 13 : : PUNCT : _ 16 punct _ _ 14 “ " PUNCT `` _ 16 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 15 Good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 16 amod _ _ 16 heavens heaven NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 17 ! ! PUNCT . _ 16 punct _ _ 18 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 20 advmod _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 ninny ninny NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nmod _ _ 21 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 22 nmod:poss _ _ 22 brother brother NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 nsubj _ _ 23 is be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 20 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ! ! PUNCT . _ 16 punct _ _ 25 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 28 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 26 ’ll will AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 28 aux _ _ 27 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 28 advmod _ _ 28 come come VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 ccomp _ _ 29 to to ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 31 det _ _ 31 good good ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 ; ; PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 33 as as SCONJ IN _ 37 mark _ _ 34 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 twig twig NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nsubj:pass _ _ 36 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 37 aux:pass _ _ 37 bent bend VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 10 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 39 so so ADV RB _ 43 advmod _ _ 40 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 42 cop _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 42 tree tree NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 nsubj _ _ 43 inclined incline VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 45 ” " PUNCT '' _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **laugh** | past | the eldest | | | | | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **hear** | past | father | this | | | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus | | 3 | **think** *speech: other* | participle | | | father | | | | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | my brother | a ninny *not said here* | | | | | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ninny=Theme | | 5 | **not** **come** *in a quote* | future | father | | | any good | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to good=Initial\_Location | | 6 | **bend** *in a quote* | present · passive | | the twig | | | | | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material | | 7 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | | the tree | | | | | tree rules | | 8 | **incline** *in a quote* | past | the tree | | | | | | vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/13/10/) - next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/13/12/) - ↑ back to [The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/13/)