---
title: “Was that you I heard walking about just now?” he asked, for wolveri… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Was that you I heard walking about just now?” he asked, for wolverines are cautious animals, and always like to know the reasons of things. Who acts: you, Wolverine, wolverines. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 61

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“Was that you I heard walking about just now?” he asked, for wolverines are cautious animals, and always like to know the reasons of things.

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**Who acts:** you, Wolverine, wolverines · **What happens:** be, walk, ask, like, know · **To what, where:** reasons · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Wolverine, wolverines), 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:pg3282:16:61
# text = “Was that you I heard walking about just now?” he asked, for wolverines are cautious animals, and always like to know the reasons of things.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	conj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	xcomp	_	_
8	about	about	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	just	just	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	wolverines	wolverine	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	cautious	cautious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	24	advmod	_	_
24	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	reasons	reason	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  | hear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **walk** *in a quote* | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  |  | now | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Wolverine |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | present | wolverines |  |  |  |  | for cautious animals | tree rules |
| 5 | **like** | infinitive | Wolverine *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Wolverine *not said here* | the reasons of things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer reason=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.

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**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.

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