---
title: But the youngest brother was greatly troubled, for he had nothing to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the youngest brother was greatly troubled, for he had nothing to show for the skein of flax that had been given to him. Who acts: youngest brother, two. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Frog, sentence 16

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But the youngest brother was greatly troubled, for he had nothing to show for the skein of flax that had been given to him.

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**Who acts:** youngest brother, two · **What happens:** be, have, show, give · **To what, where:** nothing, flax, two

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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 (youngest brother, two), 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:pg641:36:16
# text = But the youngest brother was greatly troubled, for he had nothing to show for the skein of flax that had been given to him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	troubled	troubled	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	skein	skein	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	obj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the youngest brother |  |  |  |  | greatly, troubled *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | two | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive | two *not said here* | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  | for the skein of flax | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **give** | past · perfect · passive |  | flax | two |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: that=Theme to he=Recipient |

<!-- .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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