---
title: And as they went to lay the foundation-stone, Gobborn Seer said to J… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And as they went to lay the foundation-stone, Gobborn Seer said to Jack, "Can't you shorten the way for me?" Who acts: others, Gobborn Seer, Jack. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 6, sentence 48

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And as they went to lay the foundation-stone, Gobborn Seer said to Jack, "Can't you shorten the way for me?"

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**Who acts:** others, Gobborn Seer, Jack · **What happens:** go, lay, say, not shorten · **To what, where:** foundation stone, Jack, way · **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 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (others, Gobborn Seer, Jack), 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:pg14241:20:48
# text = And as they went to lay the foundation-stone, Gobborn Seer said to Jack, "Can't you shorten the way for me?"
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	foundation	foundation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	Gobborn	Gobborn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	Seer	seer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	shorten	shorten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lay** | to-infinitive | others *= other* *not said here* | the foundation stone |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Result |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Gobborn Seer |  | Jack |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to jack=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **shorten** *in a quote* | can | Jack | the way |  |  |  | for Gobborn Seer *= seer* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent way=Patient |

<!-- .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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