---
title: And when his brothers asked him what had happened he only answered,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And when his brothers asked him what had happened he only answered, ‘When we have all three been I will tell you.’ Who acts: brothers, king, we, three. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/121/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 121

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And when his brothers asked him what had happened he only answered, ‘When we have all three been I will tell you.’

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**Who acts:** brothers, king, we, three · **What happens:** ask, happen, answer, have, be · **To what, where:** king, all, you · **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 (brothers, king, we, three), 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:pg5615:37:121
# text = And when his brothers asked him what had happened he only answered, ‘When we have all three been I will tell you.’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	ccomp	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	obj	_	_
19	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nsubj	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | king's brothers |  | king |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | present | we | all |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | future · participle | three |  | you |  |  | tell *property* | tree rules |

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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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