---
title: ‘What is the reason,’ he asked of his guide, ‘that you gather up the… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What is the reason,’ he asked of his guide, ‘that you gather up these treasures here, where they can do good to nobody? Who acts: host, you, Hans. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 47

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‘What is the reason,’ he asked of his guide, ‘that you gather up these treasures here, where they can do good to nobody?

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**Who acts:** host, you, Hans · **What happens:** be, ask, gather up, do · **To what, where:** reason, treasures, good · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (host, you, Hans), 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:pg641:25:47
# text = ‘What is the reason,’ he asked of his guide, ‘that you gather up these treasures here, where they can do good to nobody?
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	guide	guide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	gather	gather	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	treasures	treasure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
27	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | the reason |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | host |  |  |  |  | of host's guide | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of guide=Recipient |
| 3 | **gather up** | present | you | this treasures |  | here |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent treasure=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | can | Hans *= han* | good |  |  |  | to nobody | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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