---
title: ‘That is a very sensible remark,’ replied the ogre; ‘but what fatten… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘That is a very sensible remark,’ replied the ogre; ‘but what fattens you quickest?’ Who acts: That, sensible remark. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 80

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‘That is a very sensible remark,’ replied the ogre; ‘but what fattens you quickest?’

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**Who acts:** That, sensible remark · **What happens:** be, reply, fatten · **To what, where:** sensible remark, ogre, quickest

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, sensible remark), 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:pg641:41:80
# text = ‘That is a very sensible remark,’ replied the ogre; ‘but what fattens you quickest?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	sensible	sensible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	remark	remark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ogre	ogre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fattens	fatten	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	quickest	quick	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | That | a sensible remark |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | a sensible remark | the ogre |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent ogre=Topic |
| 3 | **fatten** | present |  | quickest |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent quick=Patient |

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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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