---
title: 'The cheese?' answered the fox; 'why I am taking it home to my babie… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'The cheese?' answered the fox; 'why I am taking it home to my babies, who are too young to get food for themselves.' Who acts: cheese, I, babies. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 7, sentence 15

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'The cheese?' answered the fox; 'why I am taking it home to my babies, who are too young to get food for themselves.'

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**Who acts:** cheese, I, babies · **What happens:** answer, take, be, get · **To what, where:** fox, parapet, babies, food · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, I, babies), 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:pg3027:7:15
# text = 'The cheese?' answered the fox; 'why I am taking it home to my babies, who are too young to get food for themselves.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cheese	cheese	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	home	home	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	babies	baby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
27	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the cheese |  | the fox |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | present · progressive | I | parapet |  | my babies |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to baby=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | present | my babies |  |  |  |  | young *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive | my babies *not said here* | food |  |  |  | for babies *= baby* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent food=Theme for themselves=Source |

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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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