---
title: There were none too old and none too young, none too big and none to… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There were none too old and none too young, none too big and none too little to crowd at the Piper's heels and with eager feet and upturned noses to patter after him as he paced the streets. Who acts: none, upshot. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, 
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 33

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There were none too old and none too young, none too big and none too little to crowd at the Piper's heels and with eager feet and upturned noses to patter after him as he paced the streets.

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**Who acts:** none, upshot · **What happens:** be, crowd, upturn, patter, pace · **To what, where:** heels, noses, streets

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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 (none, upshot), 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:pg14241:15:33
# text = There were none too old and none too young, none too big and none too little to crowd at the Piper's heels and with eager feet and upturned noses to patter after him as he paced the streets.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	9	nsubj	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	3	conj	_	_
12	too	too	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	17	nsubj	_	_
16	too	too	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	crowd	crowd	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	csubj	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Piper	Piper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	eager	eager	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	upturned	upturn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	noses	nose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	patter	patter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
34	after	after	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	_
36	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	paced	pace	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | none |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **crowd** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the Piper's heels and eager feet |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme at heel=Destination |
| 3 | **upturn** | past | none *not said here* | noses |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **patter** | to-infinitive | none *not said here* |  |  |  | after upshot |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **pace** | past | upshot | the streets |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location street=Theme |

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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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