---
title: ‘But who are you?’ asked the queen, ‘for you seem to be able to read… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘But who are you?’ asked the queen, ‘for you seem to be able to read my heart.’ Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Child Who Came From an Egg, sentence 17

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‘But who are you?’ asked the queen, ‘for you seem to be able to read my heart.’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** be, ask, seem, read · **To what, where:** queen, heart

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg641:12:17
# text = ‘But who are you?’ asked the queen, ‘for you seem to be able to read my heart.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	seem	seem	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
18	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the queen |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent queen=Recipient |
| 3 | **seem** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **read** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | my heart |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=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 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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