---
title: ‘What are you doing here, friend?’ asked the stranger; ‘darkness is… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘What are you doing here, friend?’ asked the stranger; ‘darkness is falling fast, and soon the wild beasts will come from their lairs to seek for food.’ Who acts: you, darkness, wild beasts. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘What are you doing here, friend?’ asked the stranger; ‘darkness is falling fast, and soon the wild beasts will come from their lairs to seek for food.’

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**Who acts:** you, darkness, wild beasts · **What happens:** do, ask, fall, come, seek · **To what, where:** stranger, lairs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, darkness, wild beasts), 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:pg641:9:3
# text = ‘What are you doing here, friend?’ asked the stranger; ‘darkness is falling fast, and soon the wild beasts will come from their lairs to seek for food.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
6	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
19	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	lairs	lair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present · progressive | you |  |  | here |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  | the stranger |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent stranger=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fall** | present · progressive | darkness |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | future | the wild beasts |  |  | beasts's lairs |  | soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from lair=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **seek** | to-infinitive | the wild beasts *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for food | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for food=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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