--- title: Petru returned to his brothers, and told them what had befallen him;… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Petru returned to his brothers, and told them what had befallen him; but not long after it struck him that his father’s left eye seemed to weep less, and the right to laugh more. Who acts: Petru, business. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, with its --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/21/) [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 Fairy of the Dawn, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/) / 21 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 21 Petru returned to his brothers, and told them what had befallen him; but not long after it struck him that his father’s left eye seemed to weep less, and the right to laugh more. **Who acts:** Petru, business · **What happens:** return, tell, befall, strike, leave, seem · **To what, where:** ears, Petru, father, more · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, 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 (Petru, business), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:19:21 # text = Petru returned to his brothers, and told them what had befallen him; but not long after it struck him that his father’s left eye seemed to weep less, and the right to laugh more. 1 Petru Petru PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 2 returned return VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 to to ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 4 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 5 nmod:poss _ _ 5 brothers brother NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 7 and and CCONJ CC _ 8 cc _ _ 8 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 9 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 iobj _ _ 10 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 12 nsubj:pass _ _ 11 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 aux _ _ 12 befallen befall VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 8 ccomp _ _ 13 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 14 ; ; PUNCT : _ 20 punct _ _ 15 but but CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 16 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 17 advmod _ _ 17 long long ADV RB Degree=Pos 20 advmod _ _ 18 after after SCONJ IN _ 20 mark _ _ 19 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 20 struck strike VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 21 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 obj _ _ 22 that that SCONJ IN _ 26 mark _ _ 23 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 24 nmod:poss _ _ 24 father father NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 25 ’s be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 26 aux:pass _ _ 26 left leave VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 28 advcl _ _ 27 eye eye NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 obj _ _ 28 seemed seem VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 parataxis _ _ 29 to to PART TO _ 30 mark _ _ 30 weep weep VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 28 xcomp _ _ 31 less less ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 30 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 34 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 right right NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obl _ _ 36 to to PART TO _ 37 mark _ _ 37 laugh laugh VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 35 acl _ _ 38 more more ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 37 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 39 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **return** | past | Petru | | | | | to Petru's brothers *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to brother=Result | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Petru *not said here* | | ears *= ear* | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | | 3 | **befall** | past · perfect · passive | | Petru | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **strike** | past | business | Petru | | | | the right *obl*; long *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Instrument | | 5 | **leave** | present · passive | | Petru's father | | | | | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme eye=Attribute | | 6 | **seem** | past | | | | | | | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | | 7 | **weep** | to-infinitive | | | | | | less *property* | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **laugh** | to-infinitive | business *not said here* | more | | | | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/20/) - next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/22/) - ↑ back to [The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/19/)