---
title: But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blame… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blamed, for she was the best servant she had and worth all the rest put together. Who acts: wife. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blamed, for she was the best servant she had and worth all the rest put together.

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**Who acts:** wife · **What happens:** say, not hear, blame, be, have, put together · **To what, where:** rest, laundry maid, best servant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (wife), 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:pg14241:18:59
# text = But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blamed, for she was the best servant she had and worth all the rest put together.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	laundry	laundry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	blamed	blame	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	parataxis	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
27	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	29	det:predet	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
30	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
31	together	together	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | James's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **hear** | could | wife | all rest |  |  |  | of the laundry maid | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of maid=Stimulus |
| 3 | **blame** | gerund · passive |  | the laundry maid *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1 «NP V NP» |
| 4 | **is** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | for the best servant | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | wife | the best servant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Patient |
| 6 | **be** |  | wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **put together** | participle |  | all rest *not said here* |  |  |  | together *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=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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