---
title: They'd gnaw a hole in the top of the tun, and down would go one mast… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They'd gnaw a hole in the top of the tun, and down would go one master rat's tail, and when he brought it up round would crowd all the friends and cousins, and each would have a suck at the tail. Who acts: mead, place, each. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fai
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/15/8/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 1, sentence 8

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They'd gnaw a hole in the top of the tun, and down would go one master rat's tail, and when he brought it up round would crowd all the friends and cousins, and each would have a suck at the tail.

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**Who acts:** mead, place, each · **What happens:** gnaw, go, bring up, crowd, have · **To what, where:** hole, top, tail, friends, suck

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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 (mead, place, each), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg14241:15:8
# text = They'd gnaw a hole in the top of the tun, and down would go one master rat's tail, and when he brought it up round would crowd all the friends and cousins, and each would have a suck at the tail.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	gnaw	gnaw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tun	tun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
18	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	up	up	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
29	round	round	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	crowd	crowd	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
32	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	34	det:predet	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	cousins	cousin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	41	nsubj	_	_
40	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
42	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	suck	suck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	at	at	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gnaw** | would | mead | a hole |  | the top of the tun |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hole=Patient |
| 2 | **go** | would |  | one master rat's tail |  |  |  | down *property* | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tail=Theme |
| 3 | **bring up** | past | place | tail |  |  |  | round *property* | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **crowd** | would |  |  | all friends and cousins |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: agent=Theme friend=Destination |
| 5 | **have** | would | each | a suck |  | the tail |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent suck=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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