---
title: “Would you care to see which of us can run fastest?” asked the torto… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Would you care to see which of us can run fastest?” asked the tortoise, after some talk. Who acts: you, us, tortoise. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 95

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“Would you care to see which of us can run fastest?” asked the tortoise, after some talk.

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**Who acts:** you, us, tortoise · **What happens:** care, see, run, ask · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, us, tortoise), 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:pg3282:35:95
# text = “Would you care to see which of us can run fastest?” asked the tortoise, after some talk.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
12	fastest	fast	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	after	after	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **care** *in a quote* | would | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **run** *in a quote* | can | us |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme which=Trajectory |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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 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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