---
title: ‘Very well,’ replied the elder; ‘but how shall we let each other kno… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Very well,’ replied the elder; ‘but how shall we let each other know if we are both living?’ Who acts: we. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/22/135/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 135

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‘Very well,’ replied the elder; ‘but how shall we let each other know if we are both living?’

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** reply, let, know, live · **To what, where:** elder · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg5615:22:135
# text = ‘Very well,’ replied the elder; ‘but how shall we let each other know if we are both living?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
13	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
16	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	advmod	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	fixed	_	_
18	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	both	both	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the elder |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **let** | shall | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **know** | present | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **live** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · progressive | we |  |  |  |  | both *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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