---
title: So he asked the Queen, ‘How do you know in the dark of night whether… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So he asked the Queen, ‘How do you know in the dark of night whether the hours are wearing to the morning?’ Who acts: King, you, hours. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Story of Sigurd, sentence 15

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So he asked the Queen, ‘How do you know in the dark of night whether the hours are wearing to the morning?’

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**Who acts:** King, you, hours · **What happens:** ask, know, wear · **To what, where:** Queen, dark

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, you, hours), 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:pg540:51:15
# text = So he asked the Queen, ‘How do you know in the dark of night whether the hours are wearing to the morning?’
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	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	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	wearing	wear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | King |  | the Queen |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent queen=Recipient |
| 2 | **know** | present · do-support | you |  |  | the dark of night |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **wear** | present · progressive | the hours |  |  |  | morning |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent |

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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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