---
title: 'Why do you give yourself so much trouble for nought, when you might… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Why do you give yourself so much trouble for nought, when you might know what you want to know for the asking? Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 99

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'Why do you give yourself so much trouble for nought, when you might know what you want to know for the asking?

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** give, know, want, ask · **To what, where:** much trouble, yourself · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), 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:pg3027:28:99
# text = 'Why do you give yourself so much trouble for nought, when you might know what you want to know for the asking?
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	iobj	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | present · do-support | you | much trouble | yourself |  |  | for nought | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent yourself=Recipient trouble=Theme for nought=Asset |
| 2 | **know** | might | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **want** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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