---
title: When the fish saw him, they asked him, "What are you sitting there f… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When the fish saw him, they asked him, "What are you sitting there for, lost in thought?" Who acts: fish, Crane. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/11/77/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Indian Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/) / [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/11/) / 77

# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the fish saw him, they asked him, "What are you sitting there for, lost in thought?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fish, Crane · **What happens:** see, ask, sit, lose · **To what, where:** Crane, thought · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fish, Crane), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7128:11:77
# text = When the fish saw him, they asked him, "What are you sitting there for, lost in thought?"
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
16	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	parataxis	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the fish | Crane |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | fish |  | Crane |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **sit** *in a quote* | present · progressive | Crane |  |  | there |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location what=Theme |
| 4 | **lose** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  | thought |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V PP.eventuality S\_ING»: agent=Agent in thought=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/11/76/)
- next →: [sentence 78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/11/78/)
- ↑ back to [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/11/)