---
title: His neighbours questioned him, but could get nothing from him, excep… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His neighbours questioned him, but could get nothing from him, except the fact that he had discovered a wonderful cure for all kinds of diseases. Who acts: neighbours, Lee. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His neighbours questioned him, but could get nothing from him, except the fact that he had discovered a wonderful cure for all kinds of diseases.

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**Who acts:** neighbours, Lee · **What happens:** question, get, discover · **To what, where:** Lee, nothing, wonderful cure

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (neighbours, Lee), 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:pg7277:31:74
# text = His neighbours questioned him, but could get nothing from him, except the fact that he had discovered a wonderful cure for all kinds of diseases.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	questioned	question	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	obj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	except	except	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	parataxis	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	discovered	discover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	acl	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	cure	cure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	kinds	kind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	diseases	disease	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **question** *speech: other* | past | Lee's neighbours |  | Lee |  |  |  | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **get** | could | Lee's neighbours *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  | from Lee | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent nothing=Theme from he=Source |
| 3 | **discover** | past · perfect | Lee | a wonderful cure |  |  |  | for all kinds of diseases | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cure=Topic |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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