---
title: ‘What should I do with you as a wife,’ he replied, wondering at her… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What should I do with you as a wife,’ he replied, wondering at her strange proposal. Who acts: I, youth, mother. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Frog, sentence 53

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‘What should I do with you as a wife,’ he replied, wondering at her strange proposal.

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**Who acts:** I, youth, mother · **What happens:** do, reply, wonder, propose · **To what, where:** strange proposal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, youth, mother), 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:pg641:36:53
# text = ‘What should I do with you as a wife,’ he replied, wondering at her strange proposal.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	advcl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	proposal	proposal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | should | I |  |  |  |  | with you; as a wife | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | youth *not said here* |  |  | mother's strange proposal |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **propose** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom proposal «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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