---
title: “I don’t know how it was that he could speak--I have never heard eit… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I don’t know how it was that he could speak--I have never heard either of them say a word before, nor have I been able to do it myself until now.” Who acts: house, ring, either. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I don’t know how it was that he could speak--I have never heard either of them say a word before, nor have I been able to do it myself until now.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** house, ring, either · **What happens:** not know, be, not hear, say, have, do · **To what, where:** word, ring · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (house, ring, either), 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:pg503:22:75
# text = “I don’t know how it was that he could speak--I have never heard either of them say a word before, nor have I been able to do it myself until now.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
18	either	either	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	before	before	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	27	cc	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	parataxis	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
30	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	xcomp	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	until	until	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | house |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | could · past | ring |  |  |  |  | speak *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **hear** *in a quote* | present · perfect | house |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | either | a word |  |  |  | before *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 5 | **have** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** *in a quote* | participle | house |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | house *not said here* | ring |  |  |  | myself *obl:unmarked* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 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.

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