---
title: The brothers assured him that they had never said so, and they were… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The brothers assured him that they had never said so, and they were sure that no such lamp existed, but their words were of no avail. Who acts: brothers, such lamp, words. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 112

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The brothers assured him that they had never said so, and they were sure that no such lamp existed, but their words were of no avail.

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**Who acts:** brothers, such lamp, words · **What happens:** assure, not say, be, exist, word · **To what, where:** king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, such lamp, words), 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:pg5615:28:112
# text = The brothers assured him that they had never said so, and they were sure that no such lamp existed, but their words were of no avail.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	assured	assure	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
18	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	existed	exist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	28	det	_	_
28	avail	avail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assure** | past | the brothers |  | king |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **exist** | past | no such lamp |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | brothers's words |  |  |  |  | of no avail | tree rules |
| 6 | **word** |  | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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