---
title: As soon as the stepmother heard what his errand was she at once said… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as the stepmother heard what his errand was she at once said to herself, ‘This will never come about if I can do anything to hinder it. Who acts: stepmother, errand, girl, This. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/31/82/)

<!-- 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 Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/31/) / 82

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as the stepmother heard what his errand was she at once said to herself, ‘This will never come about if I can do anything to hinder it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stepmother, errand, girl, This, I · **What happens:** hear, be, say, not come about, do, hinder · **To what, where:** girl, anything, errand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stepmother, errand, girl, This), 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:pg5615:31:82
# text = As soon as the stepmother heard what his errand was she at once said to herself, ‘This will never come about if I can do anything to hinder it.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	errand	errand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	14	obl	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
23	about	about	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
28	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	hinder	hinder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the stepmother |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past | king's errand | girl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | participle | girl |  | girl |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to herself=Recipient |
| 4 | **not** **come about** | future | This |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | I | anything |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 6 | **hinder** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | errand |  |  |  |  | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/31/81/)
- next →: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/31/83/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/31/)