---
title: So their father let them do as they said, and they all made their wa… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So their father let them do as they said, and they all made their way into the forest; and as the old man was weak from lack of food his sons took it in turns to carry him on their backs. Who acts: father, bundles, old man, sons. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Boo
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/12/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 12

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So their father let them do as they said, and they all made their way into the forest; and as the old man was weak from lack of food his sons took it in turns to carry him on their backs.

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**Who acts:** father, bundles, old man, sons · **What happens:** let, do, say, make, be, take · **To what, where:** bundles, way, forest, lack, father, backs · **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 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, bundles, old man, sons), 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:pg5615:37:12
# text = So their father let them do as they said, and they all made their way into the forest; and as the old man was weak from lack of food his sons took it in turns to carry him on their backs.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	advmod	_	_
14	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	turns	turn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	on	on	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | infinitive | bundles's father | bundles *= bundle* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | infinitive | bundles *= bundle* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | bundles *= bundle* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **make** | past | bundles *= bundle* | bundles's way |  | the forest |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent way=Material into forest=Product |
| 5 | **is** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  | weak *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **take** | past | father's sons | way |  | lack of food |  | in turns | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent it=Theme from lack=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **carry** | to-infinitive | father's sons *not said here* | father |  | bundles's backs |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 8 | **lack** |  |  | food |  |  |  |  | nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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