---
title: But the Piper was not a man to stand nonsense, and the upshot was th… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Piper was not a man to stand nonsense, and the upshot was that fifty pounds were promised him (and it meant a lot of money in those old days) as soon as not a rat was left to squeak or scurry in Franchville. Who acts: Piper, it, rat. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs,
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the Piper was not a man to stand nonsense, and the upshot was that fifty pounds were promised him (and it meant a lot of money in those old days) as soon as not a rat was left to squeak or scurry in Franchville.

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**Who acts:** Piper, it, rat · **What happens:** not be, stand, promise, mean, leave, squeak · **To what, where:** man, nonsense, upshot, lot, rat, Franchville · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Piper, it, rat), 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:pg14241:15:29
# text = But the Piper was not a man to stand nonsense, and the upshot was that fifty pounds were promised him (and it meant a lot of money in those old days) as soon as not a rat was left to squeak or scurry in Franchville.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Piper	Piper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	_
10	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	upshot	upshot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	pounds	pound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	33	det	_	_
32	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	25	punct	_	_
35	as	as	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	42	advmod	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
38	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj:pass	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux:pass	_	_
42	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	ccomp	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	squeak	squeak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	xcomp	_	_
45	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	scurry	scurry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	conj	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	Franchville	Franchville	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | the Piper | a man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | to-infinitive |  | nonsense |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nonsense=Stimulus |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · passive |  | the upshot | man |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: subject=Goal he=Theme |
| 4 | **mean** | past | it | a lot of money |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **leave** | past · passive |  | a rat |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **squeak** | to-infinitive | a rat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **scurry** | infinitive | a rat *not said here* |  |  | Franchville |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in franchville=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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