---
title: Now Christian was a merry fellow who liked good company; he could bo… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Christian was a merry fellow who liked good company; he could both drink and sing, and talk and boast as well, when he got a little drop in his head. Who acts: Christian, merry fellow. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and t
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/6/132/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 132

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now Christian was a merry fellow who liked good company; he could both drink and sing, and talk and boast as well, when he got a little drop in his head.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Christian, merry fellow · **What happens:** be, like, drink, sing, talk, boast · **To what, where:** merry fellow, good company, little drop, head

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink 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 (Christian, merry fellow), 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:pg5615:6:132
# text = Now Christian was a merry fellow who liked good company; he could both drink and sing, and talk and boast as well, when he got a little drop in his head.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	Christian	Christian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	both	both	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	boast	boast	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	22	advmod	_	_
24	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Christian | a merry fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **like** | past | a merry fellow | good company |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot company=Theme |
| 3 | **drink** | could | Christian |  |  |  |  | both *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | infinitive | Christian *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **talk** | infinitive | Christian *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **boast** *speech: other* | present | Christian *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **get** | past | Christian | a little drop |  | Christian's head |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer drop=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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