---
title: “How do you happen to know about him?” inquired the old woman; “mayb… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “How do you happen to know about him?” inquired the old woman; “maybe you are she who ought to have had him.” Who acts: you, old woman. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, sentence 67

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“How do you happen to know about him?” inquired the old woman; “maybe you are she who ought to have had him.”

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**Who acts:** you, old woman · **What happens:** happen, know, inquire, have · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, old woman), 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:pg503:4:67
# text = “How do you happen to know about him?” inquired the old woman; “maybe you are she who ought to have had him.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	maybe	maybe	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
23	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about castle | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about he=Stimulus |
| 3 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **have** *in a quote* | ought · present · perfect · passive |  | you |  |  |  | maybe *property* | 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 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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