---
title: His eldest brother was delighted with this proposal, and the two wic… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His eldest brother was delighted with this proposal, and the two wicked wretches seized Ferko’s loaf and ate it all up, while the poor boy was still asleep. Who acts: eldest brother, two wicked wretches, poor boy. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 1,
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 1, sentence 13

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His eldest brother was delighted with this proposal, and the two wicked wretches seized Ferko’s loaf and ate it all up, while the poor boy was still asleep.

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**Who acts:** eldest brother, two wicked wretches, poor boy · **What happens:** be, seize, eat up · **To what, where:** loaf, proposal

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eldest brother, two wicked wretches, poor boy), 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:pg640:14:13
# text = His eldest brother was delighted with this proposal, and the two wicked wretches seized Ferko’s loaf and ate it all up, while the poor boy was still asleep.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	proposal	proposal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
13	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	wretches	wretch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	Ferko	Ferko	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	’s	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	loaf	loaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	det	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	still	still	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Ferko's eldest brother |  |  |  |  | with this proposal; delighted *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seize** | past | the two wicked wretches | Ferko's loaf |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent loaf=Theme |
| 3 | **eat up** | past | the two wicked wretches *not said here* | proposal |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | the poor boy |  |  |  | still | asleep *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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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