---
title: When the appointed time had come the three brothers met once more, a… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the appointed time had come the three brothers met once more, and they sat down and discussed the best opportunity of showing off their skill. Who acts: appointed time, three brothers, Brothers, best opportunity. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, w
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 21

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When the appointed time had come the three brothers met once more, and they sat down and discussed the best opportunity of showing off their skill.

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**Who acts:** appointed time, three brothers, Brothers, best opportunity · **What happens:** appoint, come, meet, sit down, discuss, show off · **To what, where:** best opportunity, skill

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (appointed time, three brothers, Brothers, best opportunity), 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:pg5615:8:21
# text = When the appointed time had come the three brothers met once more, and they sat down and discussed the best opportunity of showing off their skill.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	appointed	appoint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
11	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	advmod	_	_
12	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	discussed	discuss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	showing	show	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
25	off	off	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appoint** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **come** | past | the appointed time |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **meet** | past | the three brothers |  |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sit down** | past | Brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **discuss** *speech: other* | past | Brothers *= brother* *not said here* | the best opportunity |  |  |  |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opportunity=Topic |
| 6 | **show off** | gerund | the best opportunity *not said here* | Brothers's skill |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent skill=Recipient |

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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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