---
title: Well, when they had all eaten, and had devoured every scrap of beef… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, when they had all eaten, and had devoured every scrap of beef on the cow, they began playing games with the bones, tossing them one to another. Who acts: bones. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, sentence 129

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Well, when they had all eaten, and had devoured every scrap of beef on the cow, they began playing games with the bones, tossing them one to another.

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**Who acts:** bones · **What happens:** eat, devour, begin, play, toss · **To what, where:** scrap, games, bones

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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 (bones), 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:pg14241:22:129
# text = Well, when they had all eaten, and had devoured every scrap of beef on the cow, they began playing games with the bones, tossing them one to another.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	all	all	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	devoured	devour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
12	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	scrap	scrap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	beef	beef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
22	playing	play	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	xcomp	_	_
23	games	game	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	tossing	toss	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	conj	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	obl	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · perfect | bones *= bone* |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **devour** | past · perfect | bones *= bone* *not said here* | every scrap of beef |  |  |  | on the cow | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scrap=Patient |
| 3 | **begin** | past | bones *= bone* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **play** | gerund | bones *= bone* *not said here* | games |  |  |  | with the bones | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent game=Theme with bone=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **toss** | gerund | bones *= bone* *not said here* | bones *= bone* |  |  |  | one to another *obl* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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