---
title: “How can we thank you? how can we thank you?” they stammered, hardly… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “How can we thank you? how can we thank you?” they stammered, hardly able to speak; and fell at her feet in gratitude. Who acts: we, others. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 30

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“How can we thank you? how can we thank you?” they stammered, hardly able to speak; and fell at her feet in gratitude.

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**Who acts:** we, others · **What happens:** thank, stammer, speak, fall · **To what, where:** you, feet · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, others), 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:pg3282:15:30
# text = “How can we thank you? how can we thank you?” they stammered, hardly able to speak; and fell at her feet in gratitude.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	thank	thank	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
8	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	thank	thank	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stammered	stammer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	gratitude	gratitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thank** *speech: thank* *in a quote* | can | we |  | you |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 2 | **thank** *speech: thank* *in a quote* | can | we |  | you |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 3 | **stammer** *speech: other* | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | others *= other* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **fall** | past | others *= other* *not said here* |  |  | bearskin's feet |  | in gratitude | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at foot=Location |

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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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