---
title: "What are the di-rec-tions for taking it?" asked the woman. — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: "What are the di-rec-tions for taking it?" asked the woman. Who acts: rec tions, woman. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Doctor Goldsmith., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Doctor Goldsmith., sentence 18

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"What are the di-rec-tions for taking it?" asked the woman.

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**Who acts:** rec tions, woman · **What happens:** be, take, ask · **To what, where:** rec tions, box · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Doctor Goldsmith.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rec tions, woman), 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:pg18442:42:18
# text = "What are the di-rec-tions for taking it?" asked the woman.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
5	di	di	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	rec	rec	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	tions	tion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	taking	take	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	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 rec tions |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | gerund | the rec tions *not said here* | box |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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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