--- title: Whether it was the hen-wife instructed her, or whether it was from h… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Whether it was the hen-wife instructed her, or whether it was from her own knowledge, I cannot tell; but she gave out they must go and bring her the Knight of the Glen’s wild Steed of Bells, or they should lose their heads. Who acts: design, hen wife, I, Queen. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/40/) [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/) / [The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/) / 40 # The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 40 Whether it was the hen-wife instructed her, or whether it was from her own knowledge, I cannot tell; but she gave out they must go and bring her the Knight of the Glen’s wild Steed of Bells, or they should lose their heads. **Who acts:** design, hen wife, I, Queen, sons · **What happens:** be, instruct, not tell, give out, go, bring · **To what, where:** hen wife, Queen, own knowledge, Knight, heads · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (design, hen wife, I, Queen), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg540:8:40 # text = Whether it was the hen-wife instructed her, or whether it was from her own knowledge, I cannot tell; but she gave out they must go and bring her the Knight of the Glen’s wild Steed of Bells, or they should lose their heads. 1 Whether whether SCONJ IN _ 7 mark _ _ 2 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 7 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 cop _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 5 hen hen NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 6 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 7 wife wife NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nsubj _ _ 8 instructed instruct VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 11 or or CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 12 whether whether SCONJ IN _ 18 mark _ _ 13 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 14 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 18 cop _ _ 15 from from ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 16 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 18 nmod:poss _ _ 17 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 18 amod _ _ 18 knowledge knowledge NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 20 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 21 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 23 aux _ SpaceAfter=No 22 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 23 advmod _ _ 23 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ; ; PUNCT : _ 27 punct _ _ 25 but but CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 26 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 gave give VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 28 out out ADP RP _ 27 compound:prt _ _ 29 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 30 must must AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 31 aux _ _ 31 go go VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 27 ccomp _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 33 bring bring VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 31 conj _ _ 34 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 obj _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 Knight Knight PROPN NNP Number=Sing 33 obj _ _ 37 of of ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 38 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 39 Glen Glen PROPN NNP Number=Sing 42 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 40 ’s 's PART POS _ 39 case _ _ 41 wild wild ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 amod _ _ 42 Steed steed NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 nmod _ _ 43 of of ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 44 Bells Bell PROPN NNPS Number=Plur 42 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 45 , , PUNCT , _ 49 punct _ _ 46 or or CCONJ CC _ 49 cc _ _ 47 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 49 nsubj _ _ 48 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 49 aux _ _ 49 lose lose VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 27 advcl _ _ 50 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 51 nmod:poss _ _ 51 heads head NOUN NNS Number=Plur 49 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 52 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | past | design | the hen wife | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **instruct** *speech: other* | past | the hen wife | | Queen | | | | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient | | 3 | **is** | past | design | | | Queen's own knowledge | | | tree rules | | 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | I | | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **give out** | past | Queen | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **go** | must | sons *= son* | | | | | | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **bring** | infinitive | sons *= son* *not said here* | the Knight of the Glen's wild Steed of Bells | Queen | | | | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent she=Destination knight=Theme | | 8 | **lose** | should | sons *= son* | sons's heads | | | | | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Eventuality | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/39/) - next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/41/) - ↑ back to [The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/8/)