---
title: “You had better ask her,” replied the man, “she is old enough to giv… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “You had better ask her,” replied the man, “she is old enough to give you an answer.” Who acts: You, man, sister. 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 87

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“You had better ask her,” replied the man, “she is old enough to give you an answer.”

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**Who acts:** You, man, sister · **What happens:** have, ask, reply, be, give · **To what, where:** sister, answer, you · **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 (You, man, sister), 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:pg3282:15:87
# text = “You had better ask her,” replied the man, “she is old enough to give you an answer.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
4	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	_
17	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | past | You |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | sister |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | sister |  |  |  |  | enough, old *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **give** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | sister *not said here* | a answer | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient answer=Theme |

<!-- .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 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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