---
title: 'How can I, when it weighs more than I do?' asked the fox. — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'How can I, when it weighs more than I do?' asked the fox. Who acts: I. 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 4

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'How can I, when it weighs more than I do?' asked the fox.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** weigh, do, ask · **To what, where:** more, fox

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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 (I), 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:pg3027:7:4
# text = 'How can I, when it weighs more than I do?' asked the fox.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	weighs	weigh	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	obj	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weigh** | can | I | more |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme more=Value |
| 2 | **do** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | I *not said here* |  | the fox |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fox=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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