---
title: ‘I must ask my wizard,’ said Little Klaus, treading on the sack and… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I must ask my wizard,’ said Little Klaus, treading on the sack and putting his ear to it. Who acts: I, Little Klaus. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I must ask my wizard,’ said Little Klaus, treading on the sack and putting his ear to it.

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**Who acts:** I, Little Klaus · **What happens:** ask, say, tread, put · **To what, where:** wizard, sack, ear · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Little Klaus), 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:pg640:41:82
# text = ‘I must ask my wizard,’ said Little Klaus, treading on the sack and putting his ear to it.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	wizard	wizard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Little	Little	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Klaus	Klaus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	treading	tread	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	putting	put	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	conj	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | must | I |  | my wizard |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wizard=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Little Klaus |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tread** | gerund | Little Klaus *not said here* |  |  | the sack |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on sack=Trajectory |
| 4 | **put** | gerund | Little Klaus *not said here* | Klaus's ear | ear |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent ear=Goal |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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