---
title: Shall I tell him that the dates have been stolen, or that a great ra… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Shall I tell him that the dates have been stolen, or that a great rain fell and a great storm blew? Who acts: I, great rain, great storm. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 21

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Shall I tell him that the dates have been stolen, or that a great rain fell and a great storm blew?

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**Who acts:** I, great rain, great storm · **What happens:** tell, steal, fall, blow · **To what, where:** lad, dates · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, great rain, great storm), 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:pg641:29:21
# text = Shall I tell him that the dates have been stolen, or that a great rain fell and a great storm blew?
1	Shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	stolen	steal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | shall | I |  | lad |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **steal** | present · perfect · passive |  | the dates |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | past | a great rain |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **blow** | past | a great storm |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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