---
title: “No!” they answered, “no one has ever known or heard or seen aught a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “No!” they answered, “no one has ever known or heard or seen aught about it; it is an empty fancy.” Who acts: men, matter. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 21

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“No!” they answered, “no one has ever known or heard or seen aught about it; it is an empty fancy.”

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**Who acts:** men, matter · **What happens:** answer, know, hear, see, be · **To what, where:** one, aught, empty fancy · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, matter), 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:pg3282:6:21
# text = “No!” they answered, “no one has ever known or heard or seen aught about it; it is an empty fancy.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	13	advmod	_	_
13	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
18	aught	aught	PRON	NN	PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	fancy	fancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | no one |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hear** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **see** *in a quote* | participle |  | aught |  |  |  | about matter | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer aught=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | matter | a empty fancy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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