---
title: For Tom could do nothing himself; the brooms wouldn't stay in his ha… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: For Tom could do nothing himself; the brooms wouldn't stay in his hand, the plough ran away from him, the hoe kept out of his grip. Who acts: Tom, brooms, plough, hoe. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 3, sentence 90

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For Tom could do nothing himself; the brooms wouldn't stay in his hand, the plough ran away from him, the hoe kept out of his grip.

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**Who acts:** Tom, brooms, plough, hoe · **What happens:** do, not stay, run away, keep out, grip · **To what, where:** nothing, hand, grip

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, brooms, plough, hoe), 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:pg14241:17:90
# text = For Tom could do nothing himself; the brooms wouldn't stay in his hand, the plough ran away from him, the hoe kept out of his grip.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	brooms	broom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	plough	plough	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	hoe	hoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	grip	grip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | could | Tom | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **stay** | would | the brooms |  |  | Tom's hand |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Location |
| 3 | **run away** | past | the plough |  |  |  |  | from Tom; away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from he=Trajectory |
| 4 | **keep out** | past | the hoe | Tom's grip |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grip=Theme |
| 5 | **grip** |  | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | nom grip «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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