---
title: The elder brothers carried in baskets two such tiny, fragile dogs th… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The elder brothers carried in baskets two such tiny, fragile dogs that they hardly dared to touch them. Who acts: elder brothers, brothers. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 78

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The elder brothers carried in baskets two such tiny, fragile dogs that they hardly dared to touch them.

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**Who acts:** elder brothers, brothers · **What happens:** carry, dare, touch · **To what, where:** baskets, two such tiny fragile dogs, brothers

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (elder brothers, brothers), 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:pg503:23:78
# text = The elder brothers carried in baskets two such tiny, fragile dogs that they hardly dared to touch them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	baskets	basket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
7	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
8	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
9	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	fragile	fragile	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	dared	dare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | past | the elder brothers |  |  | baskets  two such tiny fragile dogs |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in basket=Location |
| 2 | **dare** | past | brothers *= brother* | two such tiny fragile dogs |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent that=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **touch** | to-infinitive | brothers *= brother* *not said here* | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Co-Theme |

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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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