---
title: “What are you doing there?” asked he, for he was always afraid of th… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “What are you doing there?” asked he, for he was always afraid of things that he did not understand. Who acts: turtle. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, 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/pg3282/12/52/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/12/) / 52

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“What are you doing there?” asked he, for he was always afraid of things that he did not understand.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** turtle · **What happens:** do, ask, be, not understand · **To what, where:** turtle, things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (turtle), 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:pg3282:12:52
# text = “What are you doing there?” asked he, for he was always afraid of things that he did not understand.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	16	advmod	_	_
16	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	obj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | present · progressive | turtle |  |  | there |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | turtle |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | turtle |  |  |  |  | of things; afraid, always *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **understand** | past · do-support | turtle | things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/12/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/12/53/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/12/)