---
title: As they were sitting one day in the town hall racking their poor bra… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: As they were sitting one day in the town hall racking their poor brains, and bewailing their hard fate, who should run in but the town beadle. " Who acts: Ratcatchers, town hall, hard fate. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, with its dependen
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 20

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As they were sitting one day in the town hall racking their poor brains, and bewailing their hard fate, who should run in but the town beadle. "

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**Who acts:** Ratcatchers, town hall, hard fate · **What happens:** sit, rack, bewail, run, fate · **To what, where:** town hall, poor brains

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ratcatchers, town hall, hard fate), 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:pg14241:15:20
# text = As they were sitting one day in the town hall racking their poor brains, and bewailing their hard fate, who should run in but the town beadle. "
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	racking	rack	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	brains	brain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	bewailing	bewail	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
25	in	in	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	beadle	beadle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | Ratcatchers *= ratcatcher* |  |  | the town hall | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in hall=Location |
| 2 | **rack** | gerund | the town hall *not said here* | Ratcatchers's poor brains |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brain=Patient |
| 3 | **bewail** | gerund | Ratcatchers *= ratcatcher* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **run** | should | Ratcatchers's hard fate |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fate** |  | Ratcatchers *= ratcatcher* |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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