---
title: 'But where is the cheese?' he asked of the fox, who in her turn was… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'But where is the cheese?' he asked of the fox, who in her turn was leaning over the parapet watching his proceedings with a smile. Who acts: cheese, fox, parapet, wolf. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/7/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/7/) / 14

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 7, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'But where is the cheese?' he asked of the fox, who in her turn was leaning over the parapet watching his proceedings with a smile.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cheese, fox, parapet, wolf · **What happens:** be, ask, lean, watch, proceed · **To what, where:** cheese, turn, proceedings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cheese, fox, parapet, wolf), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:7:14
# text = 'But where is the cheese?' he asked of the fox, who in her turn was leaning over the parapet watching his proceedings with a smile.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
3	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	6	advmod	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cheese	cheese	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	leaning	lean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	parapet	parapet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	proceedings	proceedings	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	24	obj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	smile	smile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | the cheese |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the cheese |  |  |  |  | of the fox | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of fox=Recipient |
| 3 | **lean** | past · progressive | the fox |  |  | her turn |  | over the parapet | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in turn=Location |
| 4 | **watch** | gerund | the parapet *not said here* | wolf's proceedings |  |  |  | with a smile | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent proceedings=Theme |
| 5 | **proceed** |  | wolf |  |  |  |  |  | nom proceedings «act intransitive»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/7/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/7/15/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/7/)