---
title: “If you happen to pass my eldest sister’s house, will you give her t… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “If you happen to pass my eldest sister’s house, will you give her this letter?” said she. Who acts: you, Sister. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 56

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“If you happen to pass my eldest sister’s house, will you give her this letter?” said she.

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**Who acts:** you, Sister · **What happens:** happen, pass, give, say · **To what, where:** house, letter, Sister · **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 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, 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:pg3282:24:56
# text = “If you happen to pass my eldest sister’s house, will you give her this letter?” said she.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	happen	happen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
9	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | my eldest sister's house |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme house=Trajectory |
| 3 | **give** *in a quote* | future | you | this letter | Sister |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient letter=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Sister |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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