---
title: Then the brothers had gone to consult old Birscha, who told them tha… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the brothers had gone to consult old Birscha, who told them that Petru was already on his way home bearing the water. Who acts: brothers, old Birscha, Petru, way. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the brothers had gone to consult old Birscha, who told them that Petru was already on his way home bearing the water.

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**Who acts:** brothers, old Birscha, Petru, way · **What happens:** go, consult, tell, be, bear · **To what, where:** old Birscha, brothers, way, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, old Birscha, Petru, way), 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:pg641:22:33
# text = Then the brothers had gone to consult old Birscha, who told them that Petru was already on his way home bearing the water.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	consult	consult	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	Birscha	Birscha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl:relcl	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	Petru	Petru	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	already	already	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
21	home	home	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	bearing	bear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · perfect | the brothers |  |  |  | then |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **consult** | to-infinitive | the brothers *not said here* | old Birscha |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent birscha=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | old Birscha |  | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | Petru |  |  | Petru's way |  | home *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **bear** | gerund | Petru's way *not said here* | the water |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient |

<!-- .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 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.

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