---
title: Then he said: “Whatever are you three doing, sitting there crying, a… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he said: “Whatever are you three doing, sitting there crying, and letting the beer run all over the floor?” Who acts: gentleman, you, three, beer. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Three Sillies, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Three Sillies, sentence 19

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Then he said: “Whatever are you three doing, sitting there crying, and letting the beer run all over the floor?”

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**Who acts:** gentleman, you, three, beer · **What happens:** say, be, do, sit, cry, let · **To what, where:** three, beer, floor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Three Sillies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gentleman, you, three, beer), 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:pg7439:7:19
# text = Then he said: “Whatever are you three doing, sitting there crying, and letting the beer run all over the floor?”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	det:predet	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nsubj	_	_
10	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
14	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	beer	beer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	xcomp	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	over	over	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | gentleman |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | you | whatever three |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | gerund | whatever three |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sit** *in a quote* | gerund | whatever three *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | gerund | whatever three *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **let** *in a quote* | gerund | whatever three *not said here* | the beer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **run** *in a quote* | present | the beer *not said here* |  |  | the floor |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over floor=Trajectory |

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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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