---
title: Gobborn Seer said never a word, but Jack began his story, and the ro… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Gobborn Seer said never a word, but Jack began his story, and the road was shortened as his wife had said. Who acts: Gobborn Seer, Jack, wife. 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 56

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Gobborn Seer said never a word, but Jack began his story, and the road was shortened as his wife had said.

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**Who acts:** Gobborn Seer, Jack, wife · **What happens:** say, begin, shorten · **To what, where:** word, story, road · **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 (Gobborn Seer, Jack, wife), 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:pg14241:20:56
# text = Gobborn Seer said never a word, but Jack began his story, and the road was shortened as his wife had said.
1	Gobborn	Gobborn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	Seer	seer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	shortened	shorten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Gobborn Seer | a word |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Jack | Jack's story |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Eventuality |
| 3 | **shorten** | past · passive |  | the road |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | Jack's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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