---
title: But he hadn't given one blow, when what should he hear but the pitif… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But he hadn't given one blow, when what should he hear but the pitifullest entreating, and there stood before him a fairy who prayed and beseeched him to spare the tree. Who acts: bread, fairy. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 10, with its dep
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/24/28/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 10, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But he hadn't given one blow, when what should he hear but the pitifullest entreating, and there stood before him a fairy who prayed and beseeched him to spare the tree.

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**Who acts:** bread, fairy · **What happens:** not give, hear, entreat, stand, pray, beseeche · **To what, where:** bread, one blow, fairy, 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, fairy), 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:pg14241:24:28
# text = But he hadn't given one blow, when what should he hear but the pitifullest entreating, and there stood before him a fairy who prayed and beseeched him to spare the tree.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	13	mark	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obj	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pitifullest	pitiful	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	xcomp	_	_
17	entreating	entreat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
21	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	before	before	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
27	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	beseeched	beseeche	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **give** | past · perfect · passive |  | bread |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient blow=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | should | bread | one blow |  |  |  | pitiful *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 3 | **entreat** | gerund | bread *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **stand** | past |  | a fairy |  | there | before bread |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 5 | **pray** | past | a fairy |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 6 | **beseeche** | past | a fairy *not said here* | bread |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **spare** | to-infinitive | a fairy *not said here* | the tree |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent tree=Asset |

<!-- .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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