---
title: So he told his mother, and asked her if he could seek the wise woman… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So he told his mother, and asked her if he could seek the wise woman and buy a pottle o' brains. Who acts: fool. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 11, sentence 115

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So he told his mother, and asked her if he could seek the wise woman and buy a pottle o' brains.

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**Who acts:** fool · **What happens:** tell, ask, seek, buy · **To what, where:** mother, Folk, wise woman, o brains · **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 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fool), 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:pg14241:25:115
# text = So he told his mother, and asked her if he could seek the wise woman and buy a pottle o' brains.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	pottle	pottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	o	o	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
23	brains	brain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | fool |  | fool's mother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | fool *not said here* |  | Folk |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **seek** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | fool | the wise woman |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Theme |
| 4 | **buy** | infinitive | fool *not said here* | o brains |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brain=Theme |

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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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