---
title: Then he asked what it meant, and the old woman told him it was nothi… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he asked what it meant, and the old woman told him it was nothing but weakness, and that she would soon be all right again. Who acts: King, toad, old woman, woman. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he asked what it meant, and the old woman told him it was nothing but weakness, and that she would soon be all right again.

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**Who acts:** King, toad, old woman, woman · **What happens:** ask, mean, tell, be · **To what, where:** King, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, 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 (King, toad, old woman, 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:pg540:37:83
# text = Then he asked what it meant, and the old woman told him it was nothing but weakness, and that she would soon be all right again.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	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	0	root	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obj	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	ccomp	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	weakness	weakness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
24	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	all	all	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
28	again	again	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | King |  |  |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |
| 2 | **mean** | past | toad |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman |  | King |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | toad | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | would | woman |  |  |  | again | all, right, soon *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 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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