---
title: But their brother was no fool; he guessed what they were at, so he f… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But their brother was no fool; he guessed what they were at, so he fastened the rope to a stone, and then gave it a pull. Who acts: brother, rope. 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 80

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But their brother was no fool; he guessed what they were at, so he fastened the rope to a stone, and then gave it a pull.

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**Who acts:** brother, rope · **What happens:** be, guess, fasten, give · **To what, where:** fool, rope, stone

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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 (brother, rope), 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:pg540:13:80
# text = But their brother was no fool; he guessed what they were at, so he fastened the rope to a stone, and then gave it a pull.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
26	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	pull	pull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | beauties's brother and no fool *not said here* | no fool |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **guess** | past | beauties's brother and no fool |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 3 | **fasten** | past | rope | the rope |  |  |  | to a stone | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent rope=Patient to stone=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **give** | past | beauties's brother and no fool *not said here* | stone |  |  | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent it=Recipient pull=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 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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