---
title: He was powerless to eat the man, but asked him: "Why is it, young si… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He was powerless to eat the man, but asked him: "Why is it, young sir, that you are not frightened to death?" Who acts: man, road. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 20, sentence 126

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He was powerless to eat the man, but asked him: "Why is it, young sir, that you are not frightened to death?"

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**Who acts:** man, road · **What happens:** be, eat, ask, not frighten · **To what, where:** man, young sir · **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 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, road), 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:pg7128:26:126
# text = He was powerless to eat the man, but asked him: "Why is it, young sir, that you are not frightened to death?"
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	powerless	powerless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | powerless *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | the man |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | man *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | road | young sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **frighten** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | man |  |  |  | to death | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |

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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:** «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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