---
title: When he had eaten up every bit, the witch asked him if he had ever f… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he had eaten up every bit, the witch asked him if he had ever fasted. Who acts: boy, witch. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 99

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When he had eaten up every bit, the witch asked him if he had ever fasted.

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**Who acts:** boy, witch · **What happens:** eat up, ask, fast · **To what, where:** bit, boy

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, witch), 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:pg3282:6:99
# text = When he had eaten up every bit, the witch asked him if he had ever fasted.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	fasted	fast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat up** | past · perfect | boy | every bit |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the witch |  | boy |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 3 | **fast** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | boy |  |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |

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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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