---
title: ‘Sir,’ asked Jem, as he bowed till his nose nearly touched the floor… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Sir,’ asked Jem, as he bowed till his nose nearly touched the floor, ‘do you want an experienced cook?’ Who acts: Sir, Jem, nose, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Sir,’ asked Jem, as he bowed till his nose nearly touched the floor, ‘do you want an experienced cook?’

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**Who acts:** Sir, Jem, nose, you · **What happens:** ask, bow, touch, want · **To what, where:** Jem, floor, experienced cook · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, 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 (Sir, Jem, nose, 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:pg641:27:88
# text = ‘Sir,’ asked Jem, as he bowed till his nose nearly touched the floor, ‘do you want an experienced cook?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Jem	Jem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
23	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	experienced	experienced	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Sir |  | Jem |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent jem=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **bow** | past | Jem |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **touch** | past | Jem's nose | the floor |  |  |  | nearly *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme floor=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **want** | present · do-support | you | a experienced cook |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot cook=Theme |

<!-- .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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