---
title: He is a terrific fellow who eats rocks, and can press buttermilk out… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He is a terrific fellow who eats rocks, and can press buttermilk out of a stone,’ and he told her all that had happened the night before. Who acts: man, terrific fellow, that. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He is a terrific fellow who eats rocks, and can press buttermilk out of a stone,’ and he told her all that had happened the night before.

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**Who acts:** man, terrific fellow, that · **What happens:** be, eat, press, tell, happen · **To what, where:** terrific fellow, rocks, buttermilk, stone, mother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, terrific fellow, that), 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:pg641:13:86
# text = He is a terrific fellow who eats rocks, and can press buttermilk out of a stone,’ and he told her all that had happened the night before.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	terrific	terrific	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	eats	eat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	press	press	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	buttermilk	buttermilk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	27	det:predet	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	ccomp	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	before	before	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | man | a terrific fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | present | a terrific fellow | rocks |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rock=Patient |
| 3 | **press** | can |  | buttermilk |  | a stone |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent buttermilk=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | mother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **happen** | past · perfect | that |  |  |  | night | before *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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