---
title: Tick, tick, went the clock, and the farmer was nearly tired of waiti… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Tick, tick, went the clock, and the farmer was nearly tired of waiting; he had to bite his little finger to keep himself awake, when suddenly the door of his house flew open, and in rushed maybe a thousand pixies, laughing and dancing and dragging at Beauty's halter till they had brought the cow int
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/22/122/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, sentence 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Tick, tick, went the clock, and the farmer was nearly tired of waiting; he had to bite his little finger to keep himself awake, when suddenly the door of his house flew open, and in rushed maybe a thousand pixies, laughing and dancing and dragging at Beauty's halter till they had brought the cow into the middle of the room.

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**Who acts:** Tick, farmer, door · **What happens:** go, be, wait, have, bite, keep · **To what, where:** clock, little finger, farmer, rushed thousand pixies, halter, Tick

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tick, farmer, door), 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:pg14241:22:122
# text = Tick, tick, went the clock, and the farmer was nearly tired of waiting; he had to bite his little finger to keep himself awake, when suddenly the door of his house flew open, and in rushed maybe a thousand pixies, laughing and dancing and dragging at Beauty's halter till they had brought the cow into the middle of the room.
1	Tick	tick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	tick	tick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	clock	clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
15	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
27	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obj	_	_
28	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
30	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	37	mark	_	_
31	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
37	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
38	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
42	rushed	rush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	46	amod	_	_
43	maybe	maybe	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	46	nummod	_	_
46	pixies	pixie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
48	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	46	appos	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	48	conj	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	48	conj	_	_
53	at	at	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
54	Beauty	Beauty	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	56	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	's	's	PART	POS	_	54	case	_	_
56	halter	halter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
57	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	60	mark	_	_
58	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj:pass	_	_
59	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	aux	_	_
60	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	52	advcl	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
62	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	obj	_	_
63	into	into	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	obl	_	_
66	of	of	ADP	IN	_	68	case	_	_
67	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	68	det	_	_
68	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	65	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
69	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Tick and tick | the clock |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location clock=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the farmer |  |  |  |  | nearly, tired *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **wait** | gerund | the farmer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | farmer |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **bite** | to-infinitive | farmer *not said here* | farmer's little finger |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finger=Patient |
| 6 | **keep** | to-infinitive | farmer *not said here* | farmer |  |  |  | awake *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 7 | **fly** | past | the door of farmer's house |  |  | rushed thousand pixies |  | open *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in pixie=Location |
| 8 | **rush** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **laugh** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **dance** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 11 | **drag** | gerund |  |  |  | Beauty's halter |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at halter=Location |
| 12 | **bring** | past · perfect · passive |  | Tick |  | the middle of the room |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme cow=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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