---
title: On and on he played and played until the tide went down, and each ma… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On and on he played and played until the tide went down, and each master rat sank deeper and deeper in the slimy ooze of the harbour, until every mother's son of them was dead and smothered. Who acts: Nor, tide, master rat, son. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 39

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On and on he played and played until the tide went down, and each master rat sank deeper and deeper in the slimy ooze of the harbour, until every mother's son of them was dead and smothered.

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**Who acts:** Nor, tide, master rat, son · **What happens:** play, go down, sink, be, smother

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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 (Nor, tide, master rat, son), 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:pg14241:15:39
# text = On and on he played and played until the tide went down, and each master rat sank deeper and deeper in the slimy ooze of the harbour, until every mother's son of them was dead and smothered.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
3	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
8	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	tide	tide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
12	down	down	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
16	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
19	deeper	deep	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	deeper	deep	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	19	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	slimy	slimy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	ooze	ooze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	harbour	harbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
30	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
31	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	det	_	_
32	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	's	's	PART	POS	_	32	case	_	_
34	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nmod	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
38	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	advcl	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	smothered	smother	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past | Nor |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **play** | past | Nor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go down** | past | the tide |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **sink** | past | each master rat |  |  |  |  | deep *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | every mother's son of rats |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **smother** | participle | every mother's son of rats *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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.

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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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