---
title: And both brothers understood there was only one way in which they co… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And both brothers understood there was only one way in which they could kill him. Who acts: brothers, one 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 every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, sentence 49

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And both brothers understood there was only one way in which they could kill him.

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**Who acts:** brothers, one way · **What happens:** understand, be, kill · **To what, where:** way, one way · **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, one 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:pg641:22:49
# text = And both brothers understood there was only one way in which they could kill him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	obl	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **understand** | past | both brothers |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** | past | one way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **kill** | could | brothers *= brother* | way |  | one way |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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 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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