---
title: No one can answer er her riddle, and she has done to death many men… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No one can answer er her riddle, and she has done to death many men who had had no pleasure in life nor tasted its charms. Who acts: one, daughter, many men. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 101

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No one can answer er her riddle, and she has done to death many men who had had no pleasure in life nor tasted its charms.

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**Who acts:** one, daughter, many men · **What happens:** answer, do, have, taste, riddle · **To what, where:** many men, pleasure, life, charms

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, daughter, many men), 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:pg3282:1:101
# text = No one can answer er her riddle, and she has done to death many men who had had no pleasure in life nor tasted its charms.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	er	er	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	riddle	riddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
15	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
25	tasted	taste	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	charms	charm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | can | no one |  |  |  |  | er daughter's riddle | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | present · perfect | daughter | many men |  |  |  | to death | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality |
| 3 | **have** | past | many men | no pleasure |  | life |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Patient |
| 4 | **taste** | past | many men *not said here* | life's charms |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme charm=Attribute |
| 5 | **riddle** |  | daughter |  |  |  |  |  | nom riddle «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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