---
title: The youth told her of his trouble, and how his brothers would bring… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The youth told her of his trouble, and how his brothers would bring home linen spun for them by their promised wives, but that no one would spin his thread. Who acts: youth, brothers, one. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Frog, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The youth told her of his trouble, and how his brothers would bring home linen spun for them by their promised wives, but that no one would spin his thread.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** youth, brothers, one · **What happens:** tell, bring, spin, promise, trouble · **To what, where:** girl, linen, thread · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth, brothers, one), 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:pg641:36:11
# text = The youth told her of his trouble, and how his brothers would bring home linen spun for them by their promised wives, but that no one would spin his thread.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	home	home	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	linen	linen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	spun	spin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	wives	wife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	28	det	_	_
28	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the youth |  | girl |  |  | of youth's trouble | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 2 | **bring** | would | youth's brothers | linen |  |  |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent linen=Theme |
| 3 | **spin** | participle |  | linen *not said here* |  |  |  | for brothers *= brother*; by brothers's promised wives | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme by wife=Trajectory |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **spin** | would | no one | youth's thread |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent thread=Theme |
| 6 | **trouble** |  | youth |  |  |  |  |  | nom trouble «cognition 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 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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