---
title: The King asked the Boy what he meant by his conduct, and the Boy rep… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The King asked the Boy what he meant by his conduct, and the Boy replied: Who acts: King, Boy. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., sentence 35

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The King asked the Boy what he meant by his conduct, and the Boy replied:

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**Who acts:** King, Boy · **What happens:** ask, mean, reply, conduct · **To what, where:** Boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, Boy), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:7:35
# text = The King asked the Boy what he meant by his conduct, and the Boy replied:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	conduct	conduct	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	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 | the King |  | the Boy |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **mean** | past | King |  |  |  |  | by King's conduct; what *obj* | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the Boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **conduct** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom conduct «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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