---
title: There were, unfortunately, no young girls to be found in the place w… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were, unfortunately, no young girls to be found in the place where they lived; but the elder brothers agreed to go out into the world and seek for brides, promising to bring back a very pretty wife for the youngest also if he would meanwhile stay at home and take care of the house. Who acts: y
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 101

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There were, unfortunately, no young girls to be found in the place where they lived; but the elder brothers agreed to go out into the world and seek for brides, promising to bring back a very pretty wife for the youngest also if he would meanwhile stay at home and take care of the house.

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**Who acts:** young girls, brothers, elder brothers, maiden · **What happens:** be, find, live, agree, go out, seek · **To what, where:** place, world, pretty wife, home, care

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young girls, brothers, elder brothers, maiden), 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:pg5615:21:101
# text = There were, unfortunately, no young girls to be found in the place where they lived; but the elder brothers agreed to go out into the world and seek for brides, promising to bring back a very pretty wife for the youngest also if he would meanwhile stay at home and take care of the house.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	unfortunately	unfortunately	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	out	out	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	brides	bride	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	promising	promise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	back	back	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
40	very	very	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
43	for	for	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	37	obl	_	_
46	also	also	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
47	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
48	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
49	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
50	meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
51	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	parataxis	_	_
52	at	at	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
55	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	conj	_	_
56	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obj	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no young girls |  |  | there |  | unfortunately *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **find** | to-infinitive · passive | no young girls *not said here* |  |  | the place |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF» |
| 3 | **live** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | the elder brothers |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the elder brothers *not said here* |  |  | the world |  | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **seek** | infinitive | the elder brothers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for brides | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for bride=Theme |
| 7 | **promise** *speech: promise* | gerund | the elder brothers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **bring back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the elder brothers *not said here* |  | a pretty wife |  |  | for the youngest | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument wife=Destination |
| 9 | **stay** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | maiden |  |  | home |  | meanwhile *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at home=Location |
| 10 | **take** | infinitive | maiden *not said here* | care |  |  |  | of the house | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent care=Theme of house=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 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.

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