---
title: But if they do not know me, or do not know me well, they generally a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But if they do not know me, or do not know me well, they generally ask ‘Are you writing anything now?’ Who acts: ladies, you. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But if they do not know me, or do not know me well, they generally ask ‘Are you writing anything now?’

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**Who acts:** ladies, you · **What happens:** not know, ask, write · **To what, where:** me, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ladies, you), 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:pg3454:1:8
# text = But if they do not know me, or do not know me well, they generally ask ‘Are you writing anything now?’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	writing	write	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	_
23	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	22	obj	_	_
24	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · do-support | ladies *= lady* | me |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **know** | infinitive · do-support | ladies *= lady* *not said here* | me |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | ladies *= lady* |  |  |  |  | generally *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **write** | present · progressive | you | anything |  |  | now |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=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.

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**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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