---
title: ‘Well,’ said the old woman, ‘there are three of us sisters; it may b… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Well,’ said the old woman, ‘there are three of us sisters; it may be that one of the other two knows where he is to be found. Who acts: old woman, whistle, other two. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard, 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/pg540/43/35/)

<!-- 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 Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [Farmer Weatherbeard](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/) / 35

# The Red Fairy Book, Farmer Weatherbeard, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Well,’ said the old woman, ‘there are three of us sisters; it may be that one of the other two knows where he is to be found.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, whistle, other two · **What happens:** say, be, know, find · **To what, where:** one, Farmer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, whistle, other two), 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:pg540:43:35
# text = ‘Well,’ said the old woman, ‘there are three of us sisters; it may be that one of the other two knows where he is to be found.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	_
16	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	ccomp	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nsubj	_	_
27	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
28	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	33	advmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | may | whistle | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | present | the other two |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **find** | present · passive |  | Farmer |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/34/)
- next →: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/36/)
- ↑ back to [Farmer Weatherbeard](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/)