---
title: “Ah, well, such things have occurred, I know,” replied the fox grave… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah, well, such things have occurred, I know,” replied the fox gravely. Who acts: fox. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 20

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“Ah, well, such things have occurred, I know,” replied the fox gravely.

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**Who acts:** fox · **What happens:** occur, know, reply · **To what, where:** such things · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox), 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:pg3282:21:20
# text = “Ah, well, such things have occurred, I know,” replied the fox gravely.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	well	well	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	occurred	occur	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
15	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	gravely	gravely	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occur** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | such things |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | present | the fox *= fox* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the fox |  |  |  |  | gravely *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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