---
title: The black cow will ask you what is the meaning of all this, and you… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The black cow will ask you what is the meaning of all this, and you must answer what I will whisper to you.’ Who acts: black cow, you, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 2, sentence 37

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The black cow will ask you what is the meaning of all this, and you must answer what I will whisper to you.’

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**Who acts:** black cow, you, I · **What happens:** ask, be, answer, whisper · **To what, where:** you, meaning · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (black cow, you, I), 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:pg641:10:37
# text = The black cow will ask you what is the meaning of all this, and you must answer what I will whisper to you.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	nmod	_	_
13	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
19	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	whisper	whisper	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | future | the black cow |  | you |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | the meaning |  |  |  | of all | tree rules |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | must | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | future | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Topic to you=Recipient |

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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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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