---
title: She asked him: “Do you think your cat will sell for as much money as… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: She asked him: “Do you think your cat will sell for as much money as would buy a stick to beat you?” Who acts: Miss, Dick, cat. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 44

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She asked him: “Do you think your cat will sell for as much money as would buy a stick to beat you?”

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**Who acts:** Miss, Dick, cat · **What happens:** ask, think, sell, buy, beat · **To what, where:** Dick, stick · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Miss, Dick, cat), 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:pg7439:37:44
# text = She asked him: “Do you think your cat will sell for as much money as would buy a stick to beat you?”
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
9	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	as	as	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Miss |  | Dick |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present · do-support | Dick |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **sell** *in a quote* | future | your cat |  |  |  |  | for much money | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for money=Asset |
| 4 | **buy** *in a quote* | would | your cat *not said here* | a stick |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |
| 5 | **beat** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | your cat *not said here* | Dick |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location you=Theme |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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