---
title: “Whose horses are these?” he asked of the man who was watching them. — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Whose horses are these?” he asked of the man who was watching them. Who acts: horses, man. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 131

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“Whose horses are these?” he asked of the man who was watching them.

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**Who acts:** horses, man · **What happens:** be, ask, watch · **To what, where:** these, paws · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horses, man), 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:pg2435:25:131
# text = “Whose horses are these?” he asked of the man who was watching them.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | these |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | horses |  |  |  |  | of the man | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of man=Recipient |
| 3 | **watch** | past · progressive | the man | paws *= paw* |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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.

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**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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