---
title: 'Is it safe to go on, think you?' asked the wolf in a whisper. — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Is it safe to go on, think you?' asked the wolf in a whisper. Who acts: it. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 103

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'Is it safe to go on, think you?' asked the wolf in a whisper.

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**Who acts:** it · **What happens:** be, go on, think, ask · **To what, where:** you, wolf, whisper · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it), 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:pg3027:6:103
# text = 'Is it safe to go on, think you?' asked the wolf in a whisper.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
7	on	on	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	whisper	whisper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | it |  |  |  |  | safe *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go on** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | infinitive |  | you |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot you=Theme |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  | the wolf |  | a whisper |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wolf=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 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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