---
title: But he was too terrified to eat, and only tasted a few of the dishes… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he was too terrified to eat, and only tasted a few of the dishes, for fear the Beast should be angry if he did not obey his orders. Who acts: supper, Beast. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he was too terrified to eat, and only tasted a few of the dishes, for fear the Beast should be angry if he did not obey his orders.

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**Who acts:** supper, Beast · **What happens:** be, eat, taste, not obey, order · **To what, where:** few, orders

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (supper, Beast), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:14:81
# text = But he was too terrified to eat, and only tasted a few of the dishes, for fear the Beast should be angry if he did not obey his orders.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	terrified	terrified	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	tasted	taste	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Beast	Beast	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | supper |  |  |  |  | terrified *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | supper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **taste** | past |  | a few of the dishes |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme few=Attribute |
| 4 | **is** | should | the Beast |  |  |  |  | for fear; angry *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **obey** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | supper | supper's orders |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent order=Theme |
| 6 | **order** |  | supper |  |  |  |  |  | nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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