---
title: When it asked him, as of yore, ‘What do you want?’ he replied: ‘What… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When it asked him, as of yore, ‘What do you want?’ he replied: ‘What do I want? Who acts: lid, you, man, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Snuff-box, sentence 80

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When it asked him, as of yore, ‘What do you want?’ he replied: ‘What do I want?

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**Who acts:** lid, you, man, I · **What happens:** ask, want, reply · **To what, where:** man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snuff-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lid, you, man, I), 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:pg7277:20:80
# text = When it asked him, as of yore, ‘What do you want?’ he replied: ‘What do I want?
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	8	case	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	fixed	_	_
8	yore	yore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	obj	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | lid |  | man |  |  | as yore | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **want** | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **want** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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