---
title: When he asked the pike, it said, ‘Yes, Whiteland is well known to me… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he asked the pike, it said, ‘Yes, Whiteland is well known to me, for I have been cook there these ten years. Who acts: pike, difficulty, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he asked the pike, it said, ‘Yes, Whiteland is well known to me, for I have been cook there these ten years.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pike, difficulty, I · **What happens:** ask, say, know, be · **To what, where:** pike, Whiteland, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pike, difficulty, I), 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:pg540:26:69
# text = When he asked the pike, it said, ‘Yes, Whiteland is well known to me, for I have been cook there these ten years.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pike	pike	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	16	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	Whiteland	Whiteland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	cop	_	_
24	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
25	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
26	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
27	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | pike |  | the pike |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent pike=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | difficulty |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **know** | present · passive |  | Whiteland | me |  | year | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | present · perfect | I |  |  | there |  | for cook | 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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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