---
title: “What is that funny little thing which is running so fast over there?” — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “What is that funny little thing which is running so fast over there?” Who acts: funny little thing. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, 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/pg3282/25/5/)

<!-- 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 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/) / 5

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“What is that funny little thing which is running so fast over there?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** funny little thing · **What happens:** be, run · **To what, where:** funny little thing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (funny little thing), 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:pg3282:25:5
# text = “What is that funny little thing which is running so fast over there?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
5	funny	funny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	running	run	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	appos	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
13	over	over	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | funny little thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **run** *in a quote* | present · progressive | funny little thing |  |  | there |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/6/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/25/)