---
title: The black cow watched him with surprise for some time, and then said… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The black cow watched him with surprise for some time, and then said: ‘What are you doing, sonny?’ Who acts: black cow, you. 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 40

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The black cow watched him with surprise for some time, and then said: ‘What are you doing, sonny?’

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**Who acts:** black cow, you · **What happens:** watch, say, do · **To what, where:** maiden, sonny · **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), 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:pg641:10:40
# text = The black cow watched him with surprise for some time, and then said: ‘What are you doing, sonny?’
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	4	nsubj	_	_
4	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	sonny	sonny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past | the black cow | maiden |  |  | time | with surprise | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the black cow *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | present · progressive | you | sonny |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

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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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