---
title: ‘I promised,’ said Halfman, ‘when she undertook to kill my brother a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I promised,’ said Halfman, ‘when she undertook to kill my brother and to give you to me, that the first son we had should be hers.’ Who acts: I, Halfman, wife, first son. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 169

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I promised,’ said Halfman, ‘when she undertook to kill my brother and to give you to me, that the first son we had should be hers.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Halfman, wife, first son · **What happens:** promise, say, undertake, kill, give, have · **To what, where:** brother, you, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Halfman, wife, first son), 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:pg641:41:169
# text = ‘I promised,’ said Halfman, ‘when she undertook to kill my brother and to give you to me, that the first son we had should be hers.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Halfman	Halfman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	undertook	undertake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	27	amod	_	_
27	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	hers	her	PRON	PRP	Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Halfman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **undertake** | past | wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **kill** | to-infinitive | wife *not said here* | my brother |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brother=Theme |
| 5 | **give** | to-infinitive | wife *not said here* |  | you |  |  | to me | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Theme to i=Recipient |
| 6 | **have** | past | the first son |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | should |  | wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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