---
title: Whereupon he began to eat some huge boulders as if they had been cak… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whereupon he began to eat some huge boulders as if they had been cakes, and when he had quite finished, he offered Paul one. Who acts: supper, boulders. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/31/71/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whereupon he began to eat some huge boulders as if they had been cakes, and when he had quite finished, he offered Paul one.

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**Who acts:** supper, boulders · **What happens:** begin, eat, be, finish, offer · **To what, where:** huge boulders, Paul

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (supper, boulders), 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:pg2435:31:71
# text = Whereupon he began to eat some huge boulders as if they had been cakes, and when he had quite finished, he offered Paul one.
1	Whereupon	whereupon	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
7	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	boulders	boulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	cop	_	_
14	cakes	cake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	offered	offer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	Paul	Paul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	iobj	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | supper |  |  |  |  | whereupon *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | supper *not said here* | some huge boulders |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boulder=Patient |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | boulders *= boulder* |  |  |  |  | as cakes | tree rules |
| 4 | **finish** | past · perfect | supper |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **offer** | past | supper |  | Paul |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent paul=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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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