---
title: But the man only shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and opene… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the man only shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth and gaped as if he really could not believe his own eyes. Who acts: man, fish. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the man only shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth and gaped as if he really could not believe his own eyes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, fish · **What happens:** shake, shrug, open, gape, not believe · **To what, where:** head, shoulders, mouth, own eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, fish), 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:pg641:16:44
# text = But the man only shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth and gaped as if he really could not believe his own eyes.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	shrugged	shrug	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	gaped	gape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	really	really	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shake** | past | the man | fish's head |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **shrug** | past | the man *not said here* | fish's shoulders |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shoulder=Patient |
| 3 | **open** | past | the man *not said here* | fish's mouth |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 4 | **gape** | participle | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **believe** | could | fish | fish's own eyes |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=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 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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