---
title: "Yes, indeed, sir! what _are_ we to do?" said they. — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Yes, indeed, sir! what _are_ we to do?" said they. Who acts: we. 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.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Yes, indeed, sir! what \_are\_ we to do?" said they.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** do, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (we), 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:pg7128:11:82
# text = "Yes, indeed, sir! what _are_ we to do?" said they.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
9	_	_	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	14	punct	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

<!-- .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:** «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.

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