---
title: But anything which might happen indoors, or any bit of news which he… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But anything which might happen indoors, or any bit of news which her husband might bring in when he had been anywhere, had to be told at once to the whole village, and these tales were repeated and altered till it often happened that much mischief was made, and the old man’s back paid for it. Who a
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But anything which might happen indoors, or any bit of news which her husband might bring in when he had been anywhere, had to be told at once to the whole village, and these tales were repeated and altered till it often happened that much mischief was made, and the old man’s back paid for it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** anything, husband, it, back · **What happens:** happen, bring in, be, have, tell, repeat · **To what, where:** bit, whole village, tales, much mischief · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (anything, husband, it, back), 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:pg641:16:3
# text = But anything which might happen indoors, or any bit of news which her husband might bring in when he had been anywhere, had to be told at once to the whole village, and these tales were repeated and altered till it often happened that much mischief was made, and the old man’s back paid for it.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	nsubj	_	_
3	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	2	nmod	_	_
4	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	indoors	indoors	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	obj	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	_
23	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	xcomp	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	28	obl	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
37	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	38	det	_	_
38	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj:pass	_	_
39	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux:pass	_	_
40	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	parataxis	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	altered	alter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	40	conj	_	_
43	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	often	often	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	ccomp	_	_
47	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
48	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	mischief	mischief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nsubj:pass	_	_
50	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	aux:pass	_	_
51	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
55	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
56	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	’s	's	PART	POS	_	56	case	_	_
58	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	nsubj	_	_
59	paid	pay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	conj	_	_
60	for	for	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | might | anything | any bit of news |  |  |  | indoors *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bring in** | might | woman's husband | any bit of news |  |  |  |  | vn earn-54.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme which=Asset |
| 3 | **is** | past · perfect | husband |  |  |  |  | anywhere *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  | the whole village |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: to village=Recipient |
| 6 | **repeat** | past · passive |  | this tales |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 7 | **alter** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **make** | past · passive |  | much mischief |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 10 | **pay** | past | the old man's back |  |  |  |  | for mischief | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for it=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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