--- title: Then they followed the old man, and said to him, ‘My eldest brother… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Then they followed the old man, and said to him, ‘My eldest brother wishes to seek for the water of life, and the tree of beauty, and the talking bird, that you tell him are needful to make our palace perfect. Who acts: things, eldest brother, you, man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/20/56/) [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 Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/20/) / 56 # The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 56 Then they followed the old man, and said to him, ‘My eldest brother wishes to seek for the water of life, and the tree of beauty, and the talking bird, that you tell him are needful to make our palace perfect. **Who acts:** things, eldest brother, you, man · **What happens:** follow, say, wish, seek, tell, be · **To what, where:** old man, man, talking bird, tree, palace · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (things, eldest brother, you, man), 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:pg5615:20:56 # text = Then they followed the old man, and said to him, ‘My eldest brother wishes to seek for the water of life, and the tree of beauty, and the talking bird, that you tell him are needful to make our palace perfect. 1 Then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 3 advmod _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 followed follow VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 5 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 6 amod _ _ 6 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 10 to to ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 11 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 13 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 17 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 14 My my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 15 eldest eld ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 16 amod _ _ 16 brother brother NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 nsubj _ _ 17 wishes wish VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 39 advcl _ _ 18 to to PART TO _ 19 mark _ _ 19 seek seek VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 17 ccomp _ _ 20 for for ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ _ 23 of of ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 life life NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 tree tree NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ _ 29 of of ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 30 beauty beauty NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 34 talking talking NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 compound _ _ 35 bird bird NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 that that SCONJ IN _ 39 mark _ _ 38 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 tell tell VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 ccomp _ _ 40 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 42 nsubj _ _ 41 are be AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 42 cop _ _ 42 needful needful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 ccomp _ _ 43 to to PART TO _ 44 mark _ _ 44 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 42 xcomp _ _ 45 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 46 nmod:poss _ _ 46 palace palace NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 obj _ _ 47 perfect perfect ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 44 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 48 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **follow** | past | things *= thing* | the old man | | | then | | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | things *= thing* *not said here* | | man | | | | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to he=Experiencer clause=Topic | | 3 | **wish** | present | My eldest brother | the talking bird | | | | | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | | 4 | **seek** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | | the tree of beauty | | | | for the water of life | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for water=Theme | | 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | you | | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **is** | present | man | | | | | needful *property* | tree rules | | 7 | **make** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | our palace | | | | perfect *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset palace=Product | 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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/20/55/) - next →: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/20/57/) - ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/20/)