---
title: Before the days of William the Conqueror there dwelt a man in the ma… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Before the days of William the Conqueror there dwelt a man in the marsh of the Isle of Ely whose name was Thomas Hickathrift, a poor day labourer, but so stout that he could do two days' work in one. Who acts: name, man, Thomas, two days. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Mo
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 101

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before the days of William the Conqueror there dwelt a man in the marsh of the Isle of Ely whose name was Thomas Hickathrift, a poor day labourer, but so stout that he could do two days' work in one.

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**Who acts:** name, man, Thomas, two days · **What happens:** dwell, be, do, name, work · **To what, where:** man, marsh, Thomas, work

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (name, man, Thomas, two days), 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:pg14241:18:101
# text = Before the days of William the Conqueror there dwelt a man in the marsh of the Isle of Ely whose name was Thomas Hickathrift, a poor day labourer, but so stout that he could do two days' work in one.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	William	William	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Conqueror	Conqueror	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
8	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
9	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	marsh	marsh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Isle	Isle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Ely	Ely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	Thomas	Thomas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	parataxis	_	_
24	Hickathrift	Hickathrift	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	labourer	labourer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	stout	stout	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	ccomp	_	_
38	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nummod	_	_
39	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	'	's	PART	POS	_	39	case	_	_
41	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | past |  | a man |  | the marsh of the Isle of Ely; there | day |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Thomas and a poor day labourer's name | Thomas and a poor day labourer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | could | man | two days's work |  |  |  | in one | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality |
| 4 | **name** |  | Thomas and a poor day labourer |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **work** |  | two days |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: 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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