---
title: 'Have you no pity for a poor mother?' asked the fox, putting her tai… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Have you no pity for a poor mother?' asked the fox, putting her tail to her eyes, but peeping slily out of them all the same. Who acts: you. 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 86

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'Have you no pity for a poor mother?' asked the fox, putting her tail to her eyes, but peeping slily out of them all the same.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** have, ask, put, peep · **To what, where:** pity, fox, tail · **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 (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:pg3027:6:86
# text = 'Have you no pity for a poor mother?' asked the fox, putting her tail to her eyes, but peeping slily out of them all the same.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	putting	put	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
24	peeping	peep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	csubj	_	_
25	slily	slily	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
29	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	31	det:predet	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | you | no pity |  |  |  | for a poor mother | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pity=Patient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the fox |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent fox=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **put** | gerund |  | snarl's tail |  |  |  | to snarl's eyes | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent tail=Goal |
| 4 | **peep** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | out eyes *= eye*; slily *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent out they=Theme |

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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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