---
title: And who knows but ‘tis grandmother I may be to a hake or a cod--Lord… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And who knows but ‘tis grandmother I may be to a hake or a cod--Lord help and pity me, but ‘tis a mighty unnatural thing! Who acts: tis grandmother. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 61

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And who knows but ‘tis grandmother I may be to a hake or a cod--Lord help and pity me, but ‘tis a mighty unnatural thing!

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**Who acts:** tis grandmother · **What happens:** know, be, pity, ti · **To what, where:** me, mighty unnatural thing

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tis grandmother), 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:pg3454:18:61
# text = And who knows but ‘tis grandmother I may be to a hake or a cod--Lord help and pity me, but ‘tis a mighty unnatural thing!
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	tis	tis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
9	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hake	hake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cod	cod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	pity	pity	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	tis	ti	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
29	unnatural	unnatural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | may | tis grandmother |  |  |  |  | to a hake or a cod | tree rules |
| 3 | **pity** | infinitive | tis grandmother *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 4 | **ti** | present |  | a mighty unnatural thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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