---
title: “Ho, ho, ho! we know; an old sorcerer has taken possession of it, an… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ho, ho, ho! we know; an old sorcerer has taken possession of it, and now he keeps it in his pocket by day and in his mouth by night.” Who acts: we, One. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, 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/pg503/2/191/)

<!-- 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 Bronze Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/) / 191

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 191

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Ho, ho, ho! we know; an old sorcerer has taken possession of it, and now he keeps it in his pocket by day and in his mouth by night.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, One · **What happens:** know, take, keep, possess · **To what, where:** Ho, old sorcerer, sorcerer, pocket, possession · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, One), 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:pg503:2:191
# text = “Ho, ho, ho! we know; an old sorcerer has taken possession of it, and now he keeps it in his pocket by day and in his mouth by night.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ho	ho	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	ho	ho	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	ho	ho	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	sorcerer	sorcerer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
16	possession	possession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	keeps	keep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	pocket	pocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | present | we | Ho and ho and ho |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | a old sorcerer |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme possession=Destination |
| 3 | **keep** *in a quote* | present | One | sorcerer |  | One's pocket by day and One's mouth | now; night |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in pocket=Location |
| 4 | **possess** *in a quote* |  |  | possession |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 190](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/190/)
- next →: [sentence 192](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/192/)
- ↑ back to [The Bronze Ring](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/2/)