---
title: “Ah, little fox, but if I give you a basketful, what am I to eat?” a… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah, little fox, but if I give you a basketful, what am I to eat?” asked the boy. Who acts: boy. 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 43

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“Ah, little fox, but if I give you a basketful, what am I to eat?” asked the boy.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** give, eat, ask · **To what, where:** basketful, you, little fox · **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 (boy), 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:pg2435:25:43
# text = “Ah, little fox, but if I give you a basketful, what am I to eat?” asked the boy.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	basketful	basketful	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
16	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
22	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | the boy *= boy* | a basketful | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient basketful=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | present | the boy *= boy* | a basketful |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Patient |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the boy | little fox *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fox=Recipient |

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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:** «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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