---
title: Though how they know I cannot tell you, as nobody has ever seen it. — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Though how they know I cannot tell you, as nobody has ever seen it. Who acts: mortals, I, nobody. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 5

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Though how they know I cannot tell you, as nobody has ever seen it.

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**Who acts:** mortals, I, nobody · **What happens:** know, not tell, see · **To what, where:** you, house · **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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mortals, I, nobody), 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:pg3282:9:5
# text = Though how they know I cannot tell you, as nobody has ever seen it.
1	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	15	nsubj	_	_
13	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	advmod	_	_
15	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | mortals *= mortal* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **see** | present · perfect | nobody | house |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

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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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