---
title: If anyone asked questions, he only replied with an important air of… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If anyone asked questions, he only replied with an important air of mystery that he had his own reasons for not riding. Who acts: anyone, Prince. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34, 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/pg2435/34/41/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 41

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If anyone asked questions, he only replied with an important air of mystery that he had his own reasons for not riding.

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**Who acts:** anyone, Prince · **What happens:** ask, reply, have, not ride · **To what, where:** questions, own reasons

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (anyone, Prince), 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:pg2435:34:41
# text = If anyone asked questions, he only replied with an important air of mystery that he had his own reasons for not riding.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	mystery	mystery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	reasons	reason	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	riding	ride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | anyone | questions |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle | Prince |  |  |  |  | with a important air of mystery | vn respond-113 «NP V PP.predicate»: agent=Agent with air=Eventuality |
| 3 | **have** | past | Prince | Prince's own reasons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **ride** | gerund | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent 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:** «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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