---
title: 'Who has taught you this wisdom?' asked the old woman, after she had… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Who has taught you this wisdom?' asked the old woman, after she had passed her hands twice or thrice over the cloth and could find no roughness anywhere. Who acts: woman. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 10, sentence 115

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'Who has taught you this wisdom?' asked the old woman, after she had passed her hands twice or thrice over the cloth and could find no roughness anywhere.

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** teach, ask, pass, find · **To what, where:** wisdom, you, old woman, hands, cloth, roughness

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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:pg3027:10:115
# text = 'Who has taught you this wisdom?' asked the old woman, after she had passed her hands twice or thrice over the cloth and could find no roughness anywhere.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	18	advmod	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	thrice	thrice	ADV	RB	_	21	conj	_	_
24	over	over	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
30	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	31	det	_	_
31	roughness	roughness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **teach** *speech: other* | present · perfect · passive |  | this wisdom | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the old woman |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent woman=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pass** | past · perfect | woman | woman's hands |  | the cloth |  | twice *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent hand=Theme over cloth=Destination |
| 4 | **find** | could | woman *not said here* | no roughness |  |  |  | anywhere *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent roughness=Topic |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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