---
title: It is the rat who passes through me, and can reduce me to powder, si… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It is the rat who passes through me, and can reduce me to powder, simply with his teeth. Who acts: claim, rat. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 77

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It is the rat who passes through me, and can reduce me to powder, simply with his teeth.

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**Who acts:** claim, rat · **What happens:** be, pass, reduce, powder · **To what, where:** rat, me

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (claim, rat), 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:pg3282:17:77
# text = It is the rat who passes through me, and can reduce me to powder, simply with his teeth.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	passes	pass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	through	through	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	reduce	reduce	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	powder	powder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	simply	simply	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | claim | the rat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | present | the rat |  |  |  |  | through me | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through i=Location |
| 3 | **reduce** | can |  | me |  |  |  | with Rat's teeth | vn limit-76 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Causer i=Patient clause=Goal |
| 4 | **powder** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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