---
title: When the brother came home, the step-sister did as the robber had to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the brother came home, the step-sister did as the robber had told her, and fastened her brother’s thumbs behind his back. Who acts: brother, step sister. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princes and Their Beasts (lithuanian Fairy Tale), with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Three Princes and Their Beasts (lithuanian Fairy Tale), sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the brother came home, the step-sister did as the robber had told her, and fastened her brother’s thumbs behind his back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brother, step sister · **What happens:** come, do, tell, fasten · **To what, where:** robber, sister, thumbs, back · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princes and Their Beasts (lithuanian Fairy Tale). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother, step sister), 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:pg641:5:37
# text = When the brother came home, the step-sister did as the robber had told her, and fastened her brother’s thumbs behind his back.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
5	home	home	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	robber	robber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	thumbs	thumb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
25	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the brother |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | past | the step sister |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive |  | the robber | sister |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient she=Topic |
| 4 | **fasten** | past | the step sister *not said here* | sister's brother's thumbs |  | back's back |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thumb=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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