---
title: Then Mr Pryce, the head teacher, told Jake: «when you want to hit, c… — «Just hit him back» or «tell a teacher»? What th… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Mr Pryce, the head teacher, told Jake: «when you want to hit, come and tell me instead.» The first time Jake did it, he stood in the office doorway with his fists still clenched, and Mr Pryce sorted the problem before lunch. Who acts: Mr, Jake. A sentence of the lesson ««Just hit him back» or «
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher/7/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / [«Just hit him back» or «tell a teacher…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher/) / 7

# «Just hit him back» or «tell a teacher»? What the grown-ups say, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then Mr Pryce, the head teacher, told Jake: «when you want to hit, come and tell me instead.» The first time Jake did it, he stood in the office doorway with his fists still clenched, and Mr Pryce sorted the problem before lunch.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mr, Jake · **What happens:** tell, want, hit, come, do, stand · **To what, where:** Jake, Mr, target, office doorway, fists, problem · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson ««Just hit him back» or «tell a teacher»? What the grown-ups say» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mr, Jake), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:everyday:391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher.lesson:7
# text = Then Mr Pryce, the head teacher, told Jake: «when you want to hit, come and tell me instead.» The first time Jake did it, he stood in the office doorway with his fists still clenched, and Mr Pryce sorted the problem before lunch.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = everyday
# lesson = 391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R5-strong ×3, R8-pos-agree ×2
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
2	Mr	Mr	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	Pryce	Pryce	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Jake	jake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	iobj	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=10:advcl
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	hit	hit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=17:conj
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
25	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
26	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
29	Jake	Jake	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=30:nsubj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing
30	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=28:acl:relcl|HaikuPos=AUX:VBD:Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	doorway	doorway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	fists	fist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	_
42	still	still	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	clenched	clench	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	acl	_	_
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
46	Mr	Mr	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
47	Pryce	Pryce	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	flat	_	_
48	sorted	sort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	problem	problem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
51	before	before	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	lunch	lunch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=50:nmod
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Mr |  | Jake |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent jake=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **want** *in a quote* | present | Jake |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **hit** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | Jake *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | Mr |  |  | instead *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 6 | **do** | past | Jake | target |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 7 | **stand** | past | Jake |  |  | the office doorway with Jake's fists | time |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in doorway=Location |
| 8 | **clench** | participle |  | Jake's fists *not said here* |  |  | still |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **sort** | past | Mr | the problem |  |  | before lunch |  | vn classify-29.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent problem=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:everyday:391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher.lesson:7`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R5-strong ×3, R8-pos-agree ×2. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [«Just hit him back» or «tell a teacher…, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher/5/)
- next →: [«Just hit him back» or «tell a teacher…, 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher/8/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/391-just-hit-him-back-or-tell-a-teacher/)