---
title: "What the dickens," said the squire, "do you mean by lying in the mi… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "What the dickens," said the squire, "do you mean by lying in the middle of the road like that?" Who acts: dickens, you. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, sentence 63

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"What the dickens," said the squire, "do you mean by lying in the middle of the road like that?"

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**Who acts:** dickens, you · **What happens:** dickens, say, mean, lie · **To what, where:** squire, middle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dickens, you), 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:pg14241:22:63
# text = "What the dickens," said the squire, "do you mean by lying in the middle of the road like that?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	dickens	dickens	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	squire	squire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
15	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dickens** *in a quote* |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the dickens | the squire |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **mean** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **lie** *in a quote* | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  | the middle of the road |  | like that | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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