---
title: "_Our_ dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked t… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "_Our_ dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way of putting it!" Who acts: dinner, knees, delicate way. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7, sentence 110

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"\_Our\_ dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way of putting it!"

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**Who acts:** dinner, knees, delicate way · **What happens:** think, knock together, put · **To what, where:** wretched Brahman, way · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dinner, knees, delicate way), 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:pg7128:13:110
# text = "_Our_ dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way of putting it!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	5	punct	_	_
5	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Brahman	Brahman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
17	together	together	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	ccomp	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	remarkably	remarkably	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
27	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	putting	put	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	acl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Our dinner | the wretched Brahman |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot brahman=Theme |
| 2 | **knock together** | past | dinner's knees |  |  |  |  | with fright; together *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with fright=Theme |
| 3 | **put** *in a quote* | gerund | a delicate way *not said here* | way |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal |

<!-- .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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