---
title: His brothers forbade us to say that he was alive, threatening to sla… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His brothers forbade us to say that he was alive, threatening to slay us if we did.’ Who acts: brothers, father, we. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Norka, sentence 133

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His brothers forbade us to say that he was alive, threatening to slay us if we did.’

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**Who acts:** brothers, father, we · **What happens:** forbid, say, be, threaten, slay, do · **To what, where:** us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, father, we), 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:pg540:13:133
# text = His brothers forbade us to say that he was alive, threatening to slay us if we did.’
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	forbade	forbid	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	threatening	threaten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **forbid** | past | father's brothers | us |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer we=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | father's brothers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | father |  |  |  |  | alive *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **threaten** | gerund | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **slay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | father *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 6 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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.

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**Text:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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