---
title: “Ladies,” he said, “how can I thank you for what you have done for me? — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ladies,” he said, “how can I thank you for what you have done for me? Who acts: Ladies, you. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, 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/pg3282/29/42/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 42

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“Ladies,” he said, “how can I thank you for what you have done for me?

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**Who acts:** Ladies, you · **What happens:** say, thank, do · **To what, where:** 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 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ladies, you), 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:pg3282:29:42
# text = “Ladies,” he said, “how can I thank you for what you have done for me?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ladies	lady	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	thank	thank	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	obl	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Ladies |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **thank** *speech: thank* *in a quote* | can | Ladies *= lady* |  | you |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent you=Theme for what=Attribute |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  | for Ladies *= lady* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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