---
title: Before starting their mother gave them each a loaf of bread and her… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before starting their mother gave them each a loaf of bread and her blessing, and having taken a tender farewell of her and their father the three set forth on their travels. Who acts: father, woman. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 1, with its depe
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 1, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before starting their mother gave them each a loaf of bread and her blessing, and having taken a tender farewell of her and their father the three set forth on their travels.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, woman · **What happens:** start, give, take, set, travel, bless · **To what, where:** mother, loaf, sons, tender farewell

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (father, woman), 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:pg640:14:5
# text = Before starting their mother gave them each a loaf of bread and her blessing, and having taken a tender farewell of her and their father the three set forth on their travels.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	starting	start	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	loaf	loaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	blessing	blessing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	aux	_	_
18	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	parataxis	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	tender	tender	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	farewell	farewell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	appos	_	_
29	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
30	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	travels	travel	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | gerund |  | sons's mother |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Eventuality |
| 2 | **give** | past |  | each loaf of bread and woman's blessing | sons *= son* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient loaf=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | gerund · perfect |  | a tender farewell of woman |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farewell=Theme |
| 4 | **set** | past | sons's father |  |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **travel** | present | sons's father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **bless** |  | woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom blessing «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 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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