---
title: But when the Piper stepped ashore and not so much as a single squeak… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But when the Piper stepped ashore and not so much as a single squeak was to be heard, the Mayor and the Council, and the townsfolk generally, began to hum and to ha and to shake their heads. Who acts: Piper, townsfolk. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tal
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/15/42/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 42

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But when the Piper stepped ashore and not so much as a single squeak was to be heard, the Mayor and the Council, and the townsfolk generally, began to hum and to ha and to shake their heads.

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**Who acts:** Piper, townsfolk · **What happens:** step, hear, begin, hum, ha, shake · **To what, where:** much, single squeak, heads

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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 (Piper, townsfolk), 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:pg14241:15:42
# text = But when the Piper stepped ashore and not so much as a single squeak was to be heard, the Mayor and the Council, and the townsfolk generally, began to hum and to ha and to shake their heads.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Piper	Piper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
6	ashore	ashore	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obj	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	squeak	squeak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Mayor	Mayor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Council	Council	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	townsfolk	townsfolk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
29	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
31	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	hum	hum	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	ha	ha	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	conj	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	shake	shake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	conj	_	_
40	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **step** | past | the Piper | much |  |  |  | ashore *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past · passive |  | a single squeak |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the townsfolk |  |  |  |  | generally *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **hum** | to-infinitive | the townsfolk *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bulge-47.5.3 «NP V»: agent=Location |
| 5 | **ha** | to-infinitive | the townsfolk *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **shake** | to-infinitive | the townsfolk *not said here* | rats's heads |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |

<!-- .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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