---
title: To ask questions can become the laziest and wobbliest occupation of… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: To ask questions can become the laziest and wobbliest occupation of a mind, but when you must yourself answer the problem that you have posed, you will meditate your question with care and frame it with precision. Who acts: questions, you, your. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, C
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter X, sentence 6

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To ask questions can become the laziest and wobbliest occupation of a mind, but when you must yourself answer the problem that you have posed, you will meditate your question with care and frame it with precision.

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**Who acts:** questions, you, your · **What happens:** ask, become, answer, pose, meditate, occupy · **To what, where:** laziest occupation, problem, question, mind · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter X. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (questions, you, your), 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:pg2892:23:6
# text = To ask questions can become the laziest and wobbliest occupation of a mind, but when you must yourself answer the problem that you have posed, you will meditate your question with care and frame it with precision.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	laziest	lazy	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	amod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	wobbliest	wobbly	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	conj	_	_
10	occupation	occupation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	xcomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
16	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	20	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	nsubj	_	_
20	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	problem	problem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	posed	pose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	meditate	meditate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
31	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	frame	frame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	precision	precision	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **become** | can | questions | the laziest occupation of a mind |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | must | you | the problem |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent problem=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pose** | present · perfect · passive |  | the problem |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Attribute |
| 5 | **meditate** | future | you | your question |  |  |  | with care and frame; with precision | tree rules |
| 6 | **occupy** |  |  | a mind |  |  |  |  | nom occupation «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **question** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom question «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (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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- ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/23/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/23/7/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter X](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/23/)