--- title: They often talked about how stupid their husbands were, but they cou… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: They often talked about how stupid their husbands were, but they could never agree as to which of them had the most stupid one; each one stuck up for her own husband, and maintained that it was he. Who acts: Wives, husbands, smith. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy B --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/32/31/) [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 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/32/) / 31 # The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 31 They often talked about how stupid their husbands were, but they could never agree as to which of them had the most stupid one; each one stuck up for her own husband, and maintained that it was he. **Who acts:** Wives, husbands, smith · **What happens:** talk, be, not agree, have, stick up, maintain · **To what, where:** one, stupid one, eye · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wives, husbands, smith), 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:pg5615:32:31 # text = They often talked about how stupid their husbands were, but they could never agree as to which of them had the most stupid one; each one stuck up for her own husband, and maintained that it was he. 1 They they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 2 often often ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 3 talked talk VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 about about ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 how how ADV WRB PronType=Int 6 advmod _ _ 6 stupid stupid ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 xcomp _ _ 7 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 8 nmod:poss _ _ 8 husbands husband NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nsubj _ _ 9 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 cop _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 11 but but CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 12 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 13 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ _ 14 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 15 advmod _ _ 15 agree agree VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 3 parataxis _ _ 16 as as ADP IN ExtPos=ADP 18 case _ _ 17 to to ADP IN _ 16 fixed _ _ 18 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 21 obl _ _ 19 of of ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 20 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 obl _ _ 21 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 15 ccomp _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 23 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 24 advmod _ _ 24 stupid stupid ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 25 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 26 ; ; PUNCT : _ 3 punct _ _ 27 each each DET DT PronType=Tot 28 det _ _ 28 one one NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ _ 29 stuck stick VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 28 acl _ _ 30 up up ADP RP _ 29 compound:prt _ _ 31 for for ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 32 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 34 nmod:poss _ _ 33 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 amod _ _ 34 husband husband NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 36 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 37 maintained maintain VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 38 that that SCONJ IN _ 41 mark _ _ 39 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 40 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 41 cop _ _ 41 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 42 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **talk** | past | Wives *= wife* | each one | | | | often *property* | vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent one=Patient | | 2 | **is** | past | Wives's husbands | | | | | stupid *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **not** **agree** *speech: agree* | could | Wives *= wife* | | | | | | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **have** | past | | the stupid one | | | | of Wives *= wife* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient | | 5 | **stick up** | participle | | each one *not said here* | | | | for tailor's own husband | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient | | 6 | **maintain** | past | Wives *= wife* *not said here* | | | | | | vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **is a** | past | smith | eye | | | | | tree rules | 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 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. - ← previous: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/32/30/) - next →: [sentence 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/32/32/) - ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/32/)