---
title: So Tom took a gate-rail for his staff, and at it they fell, the tink… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So Tom took a gate-rail for his staff, and at it they fell, the tinker at Tom, and Tom at the tinker, like two giants they laid on at each other. Who acts: Tom, things. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 5, sentence 48

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So Tom took a gate-rail for his staff, and at it they fell, the tinker at Tom, and Tom at the tinker, like two giants they laid on at each other.

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**Who acts:** Tom, things · **What happens:** take, fall, lay on · **To what, where:** gate rail, tinker, staff, each

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, things), 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:pg14241:19:48
# text = So Tom took a gate-rail for his staff, and at it they fell, the tinker at Tom, and Tom at the tinker, like two giants they laid on at each other.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	rail	rail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tinker	tinker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	tinker	tinker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	like	like	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	33	obl	_	_
37	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Tom | a gate rail |  |  |  | for Tom's staff; Tom at the tinker *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent rail=Theme for staff=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **fall** | past | things *= thing* | the tinker at Tom |  | staff |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at it=Location |
| 3 | **lay on** | past | things *= thing* |  |  | each |  | like two giants | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at each=Destination |

<!-- .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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