---
title: The cook, seized with fright at this command, which he knew he could… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The cook, seized with fright at this command, which he knew he could not fulfil, fell on his knees, and confessed the truth. Who acts: two, cook. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cook, seized with fright at this command, which he knew he could not fulfil, fell on his knees, and confessed the truth.

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**Who acts:** two, cook · **What happens:** seize, know, not fulfil, fall, confess · **To what, where:** cook, command, knees, truth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two, cook), 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:pg641:39:60
# text = The cook, seized with fright at this command, which he knew he could not fulfil, fell on his knees, and confessed the truth.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	fulfil	fulfil	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
19	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	confessed	confess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | participle |  | the cook *not said here* |  | this command |  | with fright | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **know** | past | two | this command |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **fulfil** | could | two |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | past | the cook |  |  | two's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 5 | **confess** | past | the cook *not said here* | the truth |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent truth=Topic |

<!-- .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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