---
title: And two of them could not be put to death, but the youngest, whose f… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And two of them could not be put to death, but the youngest, whose face was very beautiful, could be killed, and it was _her_ head that the boy had promised to bring. Who acts: face, boy. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/26/)

<!-- 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 Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/) / 26

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And two of them could not be put to death, but the youngest, whose face was very beautiful, could be killed, and it was \_her\_ head that the boy had promised to bring.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** face, boy · **What happens:** not put, be, kill, promise, bring · **To what, where:** two, youngest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, boy), 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:pg503:27:26
# text = And two of them could not be put to death, but the youngest, whose face was very beautiful, could be killed, and it was _her_ head that the boy had promised to bring.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nmod	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	24	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	32	punct	_	_
32	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	parataxis	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **put** | could · passive |  | two of women |  |  |  | to death | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |
| 2 | **is** | past | face |  |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **kill** | could · passive |  | the youngest |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · perfect | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **bring** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/25/)
- next →: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/27/)
- ↑ back to [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/)