---
title: The robbers, also, were not very well pleased at this, for they were… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The robbers, also, were not very well pleased at this, for they were forced to own that the youth was at the head of them all. Who acts: robbers, youth. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 78

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The robbers, also, were not very well pleased at this, for they were forced to own that the youth was at the head of them all.

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**Who acts:** robbers, youth · **What happens:** not be, force, own, be · **To what, where:** this, robbers, head

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (robbers, youth), 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:pg540:9:78
# text = The robbers, also, were not very well pleased at this, for they were forced to own that the youth was at the head of them all.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	also	also	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
10	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	forced	force	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	own	own	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the robbers |  |  | this |  | pleased, well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **force** | past · passive |  | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **own** | to-infinitive | robbers *= robber* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is** | past | the youth |  |  | the head |  | of robbers *= robber* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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