---
title: But as he was a little afraid of his wife, who knew so much more tha… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as he was a little afraid of his wife, who knew so much more than he, he asked no questions. Who acts: husband, wife. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/20/59/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 59

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But as he was a little afraid of his wife, who knew so much more than he, he asked no questions.

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**Who acts:** husband, wife · **What happens:** be, know, ask · **To what, where:** more, questions

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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, wife), 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:pg3282:20:59
# text = But as he was a little afraid of his wife, who knew so much more than he, he asked no questions.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	advcl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	much	much	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	obj	_	_
17	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | husband |  |  |  |  | of husband's wife; a little *obl:unmarked*; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | past | husband's wife | more |  |  |  | than husband | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer more=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | husband | no questions |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |

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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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