---
title: Their father and mother brought them into the thickest and most obsc… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Their father and mother brought them into the thickest and most obscure part of the forest, when, stealing away into a by-path, they there left them. Who acts: father, folks. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 49

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Their father and mother brought them into the thickest and most obscure part of the forest, when, stealing away into a by-path, they there left them.

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**Who acts:** father, folks · **What happens:** bring, steal away, leave · **To what, where:** folks, thickest part, a, pebbles

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, folks), 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:pg503:33:49
# text = Their father and mother brought them into the thickest and most obscure part of the forest, when, stealing away into a by-path, they there left them.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
5	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
9	thickest	thick	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	12	advmod	_	_
12	obscure	obscure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
13	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
21	away	away	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	obl	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	_
30	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past | folks's father and mother | folks *= folk* |  | the thickest part of the forest |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme into part=Destination |
| 2 | **steal away** | gerund | folks's father and mother *not said here* |  |  | a |  | by path; away *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by path=Location |
| 3 | **leave** | past | folks *= folk* | pebbles *= pebble* |  | there |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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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