---
title: And when he was come to it, he took his axe in his hand and swung it… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And when he was come to it, he took his axe in his hand and swung it round his head as though he were minded to fell the tree at one stroke. Who acts: bread. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 10, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And when he was come to it, he took his axe in his hand and swung it round his head as though he were minded to fell the tree at one stroke.

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**Who acts:** bread · **What happens:** come, take, swing, mind, fall · **To what, where:** bread, oak, axe, hand, head, tree

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bread), 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:pg14241:24:27
# text = And when he was come to it, he took his axe in his hand and swung it round his head as though he were minded to fell the tree at one stroke.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	swung	swing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	round	round	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	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	as	as	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
23	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	minded	mind	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	stroke	stroke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past · passive |  | bread | oak |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | bread | bread's axe |  | bread's hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent axe=Value in hand=Location |
| 3 | **swing** | past | bread *not said here* | axe |  | bread's head |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent it=Theme round head=Trajectory |
| 4 | **mind** | past · passive |  | bread |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **fall** | past |  | the tree |  | one stroke |  |  | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient tree=Result |

<!-- .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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