---
title: He had been eating in the mill, and had laid down a great loaf of bo… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had been eating in the mill, and had laid down a great loaf of bone bread by his side, and the knife I told you about was in his hand, but his fingers relaxed their hold of it in sleep. Who acts: giant, knife, fingers. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy 
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 9, sentence 6

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He had been eating in the mill, and had laid down a great loaf of bone bread by his side, and the knife I told you about was in his hand, but his fingers relaxed their hold of it in sleep.

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**Who acts:** giant, knife, fingers · **What happens:** eat, lay down, tell, be, relax, hold · **To what, where:** mill, great loaf, you, hand, hold, sleep · **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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (giant, knife, fingers), 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:pg14241:23:6
# text = He had been eating in the mill, and had laid down a great loaf of bone bread by his side, and the knife I told you about was in his hand, but his fingers relaxed their hold of it in sleep.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux	_	_
4	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
12	down	down	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	loaf	loaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	_
29	about	about	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
38	relaxed	relax	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nmod	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	sleep	sleep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · perfect · progressive | giant |  |  | the mill |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **lay down** | past · perfect | giant *not said here* | a great loaf of bone bread |  |  |  | by giant's side | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent loaf=Theme by side=Destination |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the knife |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | giant's hand |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **relax** | past | giant's fingers | fingers's hold of mill |  | sleep |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hold=Experiencer |
| 6 | **hold** |  | fingers *= finger* | mill |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: poss=agent of=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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