---
title: Well, much as they feared the rats, they feared parting with their m… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, much as they feared the rats, they feared parting with their money more, and fain would they have higgled and haggled. Who acts: rats. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 28

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Well, much as they feared the rats, they feared parting with their money more, and fain would they have higgled and haggled.

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**Who acts:** rats · **What happens:** fear, part, higgle, haggle · **To what, where:** rats

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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 (rats), 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:pg14241:15:28
# text = Well, much as they feared the rats, they feared parting with their money more, and fain would they have higgled and haggled.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	parting	part	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	fain	fain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	higgled	higgle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	haggled	haggle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fear** | past | rats *= rat* | the rats |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rat=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fear** | past | rats *= rat* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **part** | gerund | rats *= rat* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with rats's money | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient with money=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **higgle** | would · perfect | rats *= rat* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **haggle** | participle | rats *= rat* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «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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