---
title: Now, as it happened, this inn was a regular resort of a band of murd… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, as it happened, this inn was a regular resort of a band of murderers, and the old witch too was in the habit of frequenting it. Who acts: it, inn, old witch, habit. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Riddle, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now, as it happened, this inn was a regular resort of a band of murderers, and the old witch too was in the habit of frequenting it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, inn, old witch, habit · **What happens:** happen, be, frequent · **To what, where:** regular resort, habit, inn

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Riddle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, inn, old witch, habit), 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:pg7277:47:23
# text = Now, as it happened, this inn was a regular resort of a band of murderers, and the old witch too was in the habit of frequenting it.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	inn	inn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	regular	regular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	resort	resort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	murderers	murderer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	habit	habit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
28	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	frequenting	frequent	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  | now |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | this inn | a regular resort |  |  |  | of a band of murderers | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the old witch |  |  | the habit |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **frequent** | gerund | the habit *not said here* | inn |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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