---
title: And the husband did as he was bid, though he wondered what use a cow… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the husband did as he was bid, though he wondered what use a cow-house could be, as they had no cows to put in it. Who acts: husband, words. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the husband did as he was bid, though he wondered what use a cow-house could be, as they had no cows to put in it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** husband, words · **What happens:** do, bid, wonder, use, be, put · **To what, where:** husband, cow house, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband, words), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:20:58
# text = And the husband did as he was bid, though he wondered what use a cow-house could be, as they had no cows to put in it.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	bid	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
14	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **bid** | past · passive |  | husband |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **use** | present |  | a cow house |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | could | words *= word* | a cow house *not said here* |  |  |  | have *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **put** | to-infinitive | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  | house |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in it=Destination |

<!-- .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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