---
title: ‘Why are you so silent?’ asked the man one morning when dinner had p… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why are you so silent?’ asked the man one morning when dinner had passed before his wife had uttered one word. Who acts: you, wife. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Why are you so silent?’ asked the man one morning when dinner had passed before his wife had uttered one word.

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**Who acts:** you, wife · **What happens:** be, ask, pass, utter · **To what, where:** man, dinner, one word · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, wife), 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:pg3454:7:69
# text = ‘Why are you so silent?’ asked the man one morning when dinner had passed before his wife had uttered one word.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:unmarked	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
18	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	uttered	utter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  |  | silent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the man  one morning |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent man=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pass** | past · perfect · passive |  | dinner |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 4 | **utter** *speech: other* | past · perfect | Man's wife | one word |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |

<!-- .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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