---
title: ‘These coffins,’ she said, ‘were intended for your brothers, but the… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘These coffins,’ she said, ‘were intended for your brothers, but they stole secretly away before you were born.’ Who acts: coffins. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 37

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‘These coffins,’ she said, ‘were intended for your brothers, but they stole secretly away before you were born.’

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**Who acts:** coffins · **What happens:** say, intend, steal, bear · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (coffins), 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:pg540:41:37
# text = ‘These coffins,’ she said, ‘were intended for your brothers, but they stole secretly away before you were born.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	coffins	coffin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	‘	‘	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	intended	intend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	ccomp	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	secretly	secretly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | this coffins |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **intend** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | for your brothers | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING» |
| 3 | **steal** | past | coffins *= coffin* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bear** | past · passive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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 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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