---
title: The brothers answered him that they had never said a word about such… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The brothers answered him that they had never said a word about such a coverlet, did not believe it existed, and that it was quite impossible for them to procure it. Who acts: brothers, word. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree a
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/29/33/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/29/) / 33

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The brothers answered him that they had never said a word about such a coverlet, did not believe it existed, and that it was quite impossible for them to procure it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brothers, word · **What happens:** answer, not say, not believe, exist, be, procure · **To what, where:** coverlet, word · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, word), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg5615:29:33
# text = The brothers answered him that they had never said a word about such a coverlet, did not believe it existed, and that it was quite impossible for them to procure it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	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	obj	_	_
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	15	det:predet	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	coverlet	coverlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	believe	believe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	existed	exist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	expl	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
29	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	procure	procure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	csubj	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the brothers |  | coverlet |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | brothers *= brother* | a word |  |  |  | about such coverlet | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **believe** | past · do-support |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **exist** | past | word |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | the brothers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **procure** | to-infinitive | brothers *= brother* | word |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/29/32/)
- next →: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/29/34/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/29/)