---
title: The horse will ask you what you are counting, and you must be sure t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The horse will ask you what you are counting, and you must be sure to answer what I whisper to you.’ Who acts: horse, 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 62

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The horse will ask you what you are counting, and you must be sure to answer what I whisper to you.’

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**Who acts:** horse, you, I · **What happens:** ask, count, be, answer, whisper · **To what, where:** you · **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 (horse, 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:pg641:10:62
# text = The horse will ask you what you are counting, and you must be sure to answer what I whisper to you.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	counting	count	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
15	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	whisper	whisper	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | future | the horse |  | you |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **count** | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | must | you |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **answer** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 5 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | present | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to you=Recipient |

<!-- .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 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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