---
title: In front of the house was a long mound which went by the name of "th… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In front of the house was a long mound which went by the name of "the giant's grave," and in the mill you can see a long blade of iron something like a scythe-blade, but not curved, which was called "the giant's knife," because of a very curious story which is told of this knife. Who acts: long moun
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, sentence 142

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In front of the house was a long mound which went by the name of "the giant's grave," and in the mill you can see a long blade of iron something like a scythe-blade, but not curved, which was called "the giant's knife," because of a very curious story which is told of this knife.

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**Who acts:** long mound, you · **What happens:** be, go, see, not curve, call, tell · **To what, where:** long mound, front, long blade, mill, knife, curious story · **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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (long mound, you), 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:pg14241:22:142
# text = In front of the house was a long mound which went by the name of "the giant's grave," and in the mill you can see a long blade of iron something like a scythe-blade, but not curved, which was called "the giant's knife," because of a very curious story which is told of this knife.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	mound	mound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	32	nmod	_	_
36	like	like	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
38	scythe	scythe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
42	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	44	advmod	_	_
44	curved	curve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	48	nsubj:pass	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux:pass	_	_
48	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	conj	_	_
49	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	's	's	PART	POS	_	51	case	_	_
53	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	53	punct	_	_
56	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	61	case	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	fixed	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
59	very	very	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	_
60	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
62	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	64	nsubj:pass	_	_
63	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	64	aux:pass	_	_
64	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	61	acl:relcl	_	_
65	of	of	ADP	IN	_	67	case	_	_
66	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	67	det	_	_
67	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	64	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
68	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a long mound |  | front of the house |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | past | a long mound |  |  |  |  | by the name of the giant's grave | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by name=Location |
| 3 | **see** | can | you | a long blade of something |  | the mill |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer blade=Stimulus |
| 4 | **not** **curve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material |
| 5 | **call** | past · passive |  | the giant's knife |  |  |  | because a curious story | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · passive |  | a curious story |  |  |  | of this knife | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 7 | **name** |  |  | the giant's grave |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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