---
title: When their father and mother lay at the point of death, they had thu… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When their father and mother lay at the point of death, they had thus enjoined their son: ‘Give your sisters in marriage to the very first suitors who come to woo them. Who acts: father, first suitors. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Death of Koshchei the Deathless, with its d
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Death of Koshchei the Deathless, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When their father and mother lay at the point of death, they had thus enjoined their son: ‘Give your sisters in marriage to the very first suitors who come to woo them.

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**Who acts:** father, first suitors · **What happens:** lay, enjoin, give, come, woo, point · **To what, where:** point, son, sisters, marriage, death

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Death of Koshchei the Deathless. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, first suitors), 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:pg540:7:4
# text = When their father and mother lay at the point of death, they had thus enjoined their son: ‘Give your sisters in marriage to the very first suitors who come to woo them.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
6	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	enjoined	enjoin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	iobj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	marriage	marriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	30	amod	_	_
30	suitors	suitor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
31	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	woo	woo	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present | Marya's father and mother |  |  | the point of death |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at point=Destination |
| 2 | **enjoin** | past · perfect | father | Marya's son |  |  |  | thus *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | infinitive | father *not said here* |  | your sisters | marriage |  | to the first suitors | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent sister=Theme to suitor=Recipient |
| 4 | **come** | present | the first suitors |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **woo** | to-infinitive | the first suitors *not said here* | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 6 | **point** |  |  | death |  |  |  |  | nom point «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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