---
title: ‘What is it?’ he asked, and she answered that the knight who owned t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What is it?’ he asked, and she answered that the knight who owned the castle was dead, and they were bearing his body to the church. Who acts: outcry, drawbridge, knight, knights. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 92

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘What is it?’ he asked, and she answered that the knight who owned the castle was dead, and they were bearing his body to the church.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** outcry, drawbridge, knight, knights · **What happens:** be, ask, answer, own, bear · **To what, where:** outcry, castle, body

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (outcry, drawbridge, knight, knights), 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:pg3454:30:92
# text = ‘What is it?’ he asked, and she answered that the knight who owned the castle was dead, and they were bearing his body to the church.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:outer	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	owned	own	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	bearing	bear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | outcry |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | outcry |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | drawbridge |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **own** | past | the knight | the castle |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot castle=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | the knight |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **bear** | past · progressive | knights *= knight* | horse's body |  |  |  | to the church | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Patient |

<!-- .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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