---
title: But first he thought he’d test him, so taking up a stone in his hand… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But first he thought he’d test him, so taking up a stone in his hand, he squeezed it till some drops of water ran out. Who acts: tailor, drops. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But first he thought he’d test him, so taking up a stone in his hand, he squeezed it till some drops of water ran out.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tailor, drops · **What happens:** think, have, test, take up, squeeze, run out · **To what, where:** tailor, stone, hand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tailor, drops), 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:pg503:42:31
# text = But first he thought he’d test him, so taking up a stone in his hand, he squeezed it till some drops of water ran out.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’d	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	test	test	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	squeezed	squeeze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	drops	drop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | tailor |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | tailor |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **test** | infinitive | tailor *not said here* | tailor |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **take up** | gerund | tailor *not said here* | a stone |  | tailor's hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent stone=Value in hand=Location |
| 5 | **squeeze** | past | tailor | stone |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 6 | **run out** | past | some drops of water |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 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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