---
title: “Well, how do you mean to set about it?” asked the Master-maid. — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, how do you mean to set about it?” asked the Master-maid. Who acts: you, Master maid. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/51/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Master-maid, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/) / 51

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master-maid, part 1, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well, how do you mean to set about it?” asked the Master-maid.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, Master maid · **What happens:** mean, set, ask · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Master maid), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:17:51
# text = “Well, how do you mean to set about it?” asked the Master-maid.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
5	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	Master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **set** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about side | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent about it=Destination |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Master maid |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/50/)
- next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/52/)
- ↑ back to [The Master-maid, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/17/)