---
title: When the goblins, tired and with empty hands, returned, their master… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the goblins, tired and with empty hands, returned, their master inquired what they had seen, and if nothing strange had befallen them. Who acts: empty hands, master, brook. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/11/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Grateful Prince, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/11/) / 14

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 3, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the goblins, tired and with empty hands, returned, their master inquired what they had seen, and if nothing strange had befallen them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** empty hands, master, brook · **What happens:** return, inquire, see, befall · **To what, where:** nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (empty hands, master, brook), 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:pg641:11:14
# text = When the goblins, tired and with empty hands, returned, their master inquired what they had seen, and if nothing strange had befallen them.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	goblins	goblin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	befallen	befall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | empty hands |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | brook's master |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **see** | past · perfect | brook |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **befall** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/11/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/11/15/)
- ↑ back to [The Grateful Prince, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/11/)