---
title: "By virtue of my three feathers may the copper be lit, and the cloth… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "By virtue of my three feathers may the copper be lit, and the clothes washed, and mangled, and folded, and put away to the missus's satisfaction." Who acts: virtue, you, missus. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, with its dependency tree and
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 31

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"By virtue of my three feathers may the copper be lit, and the clothes washed, and mangled, and folded, and put away to the missus's satisfaction."

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**Who acts:** virtue, you, missus · **What happens:** lit, wash, mangle, fold, put away, satisfy · **To what, where:** copper, clothes

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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 (virtue, you, missus), 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:pg14241:18:31
# text = "By virtue of my three feathers may the copper be lit, and the clothes washed, and mangled, and folded, and put away to the missus's satisfaction."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	virtue	virtue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
8	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	lit	lit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	washed	wash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	mangled	mangle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	folded	fold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	away	away	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	missus	missus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	's	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	satisfaction	satisfaction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lit** *in a quote* | may · passive | virtue of my three feathers | the copper |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **wash** *in a quote* | participle · passive |  | the clothes |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **mangle** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-3 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **fold** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **put away** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the missus's satisfaction; away *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **satisfy** *in a quote* |  | the missus |  |  |  |  |  | nom satisfaction «feeling 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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