---
title: 'As if I knew anything about husbands!' replied Desiree, who had lon… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'As if I knew anything about husbands!' replied Desiree, who had long ago guessed the business of the ambassador. Who acts: I, Desiree. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 23, sentence 2

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'As if I knew anything about husbands!' replied Desiree, who had long ago guessed the business of the ambassador.

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**Who acts:** I, Desiree · **What happens:** know, reply, have, guess · **To what, where:** anything, business

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Desiree), 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:pg3027:23:2
# text = 'As if I knew anything about husbands!' replied Desiree, who had long ago guessed the business of the ambassador.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
6	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obj	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	husbands	husband	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Desiree	Desiree	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
17	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ambassador	ambassador	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | anything |  |  |  | about husbands | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Desiree |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **have** | past | Desiree |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **guess** | past | Desiree *not said here* | the business of the ambassador |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent business=Theme |

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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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