--- title: ‘Dear sister, there is still a little difficulty, for we had all agr… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘Dear sister, there is still a little difficulty, for we had all agreed that any girl we met should die at our hands, because it was for the sake of a girl that we had to leave our kingdom.’ Who acts: Dear sister, we, girl, difficulty. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Br --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/41/49/) [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 Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Twelve Brothers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/41/) / 49 # The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 49 ‘Dear sister, there is still a little difficulty, for we had all agreed that any girl we met should die at our hands, because it was for the sake of a girl that we had to leave our kingdom.’ **Who acts:** Dear sister, we, girl, difficulty · **What happens:** be, agree, meet, die, have, leave · **To what, where:** little difficulty, girl, hands, kingdom 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 (Dear sister, we, girl, difficulty), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg540:41:49 # text = ‘Dear sister, there is still a little difficulty, for we had all agreed that any girl we met should die at our hands, because it was for the sake of a girl that we had to leave our kingdom.’ 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 Dear dear ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 sister sister NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 5 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 6 expl _ _ 6 is be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 7 still still ADV RB _ 10 advmod _ _ 8 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 9 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 10 difficulty difficulty NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 12 for for SCONJ IN _ 16 mark _ _ 13 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ _ 14 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 aux _ _ 15 all all ADV RB _ 16 advmod _ _ 16 agreed agree VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 10 acl:relcl _ _ 17 that that SCONJ IN _ 23 mark _ _ 18 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 19 det _ _ 19 girl girl NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 nsubj _ _ 20 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 met meet VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 19 acl:relcl _ _ 22 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 23 aux _ _ 23 die die VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 xcomp _ _ 24 at at ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 25 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 26 nmod:poss _ _ 26 hands hand NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 28 because because SCONJ IN _ 33 mark _ _ 29 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 nsubj _ _ 30 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 33 cop _ _ 31 for for ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 sake sake NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obl _ _ 34 of of ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 girl girl NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nmod _ _ 37 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 39 obj _ _ 38 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 acl:relcl _ _ 40 to to PART TO _ 41 mark _ _ 41 leave leave VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 39 xcomp _ _ 42 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 43 nmod:poss _ _ 43 kingdom kingdom NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 45 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 10 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **be** | present | Dear sister | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past · perfect | we | a little difficulty *not said here* | | | | all *property* | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: agent=Agent difficulty=Co-Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **meet** | past | we | any girl *not said here* | | | | | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Co-Agent | | 4 | **die** *not said to happen* | should | any girl | | | our hands | | | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | | 5 | **is** | past | difficulty | | | | | for the sake; of a girl | tree rules | | 6 | **have** | past | we | a girl | | | | | tree rules | | 7 | **leave** | to-infinitive | a girl *not said here* | our kingdom | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kingdom=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/41/48/) - next →: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/41/50/) - ↑ back to [The Twelve Brothers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/41/)