---
title: "Why, what's the matter?" said his wife, "and why do you want to kno… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Why, what's the matter?" said his wife, "and why do you want to know who Tommy Tildrum is?" Who acts: wife, you, Tommy Tildrum. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/29/12/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, sentence 12

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"Why, what's the matter?" said his wife, "and why do you want to know who Tommy Tildrum is?"

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**Who acts:** wife, you, Tommy Tildrum · **What happens:** be, say, want, know · **To what, where:** matter · **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 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, you, Tommy Tildrum), 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:pg14241:29:12
# text = "Why, what's the matter?" said his wife, "and why do you want to know who Tommy Tildrum is?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
17	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	ccomp	_	_
23	Tommy	Tommy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	Tildrum	Tildrum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | prince's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **want** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **know** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Tommy Tildrum |  |  |  |  |  | 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:** «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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