---
title: ‘What is the matter, O son of a king?’ asked they, breathless with r… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What is the matter, O son of a king?’ asked they, breathless with running. Who acts: attendants. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 23

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‘What is the matter, O son of a king?’ asked they, breathless with running.

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**Who acts:** attendants · **What happens:** be, ask, run · **To what, where:** matter · **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 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (attendants), 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:pg3454:21:23
# text = ‘What is the matter, O son of a king?’ asked they, breathless with running.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	O	of	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	8	case	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	breathless	breathless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	parataxis	_	_
18	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | attendants *= attendant* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **run** | gerund | attendants *= attendant* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 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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