---
title: They asked him how it might be. — Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems · tree and pragmatics
description: They asked him how it might be. Who acts: Twas, tree. A sentence of «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Opening, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/18/136/)

<!-- 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/) / [Kulóskap the master, and other Algonki…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/) / [Opening, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/18/) / 136

# Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems, Opening, part 18, sentence 136

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They asked him how it might be.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Twas, tree · **What happens:** ask, be · **To what, where:** stranger

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Opening, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Twas, tree), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78673:18:136
# text = They asked him how it might be.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Twas *= twa* |  | stranger |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** *not said to happen* | might | tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Kulóskap the master, and other Algonkin poems», Project Gutenberg book 78673 (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 135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/18/135/)
- next →: [sentence 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/18/137/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg78673/18/)