---
title: They prate and prattle pleasantly, As they ride on the way, To those… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They prate and prattle pleasantly, As they ride on the way, To those that should their butchers be And work their lives' decay: Who acts: Children, those, lives. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 11, sentence 51

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They prate and prattle pleasantly, As they ride on the way, To those that should their butchers be And work their lives' decay:

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**Who acts:** Children, those, lives · **What happens:** prate, prattle, ride, be, decay · **To what, where:** way

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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 (Children, those, lives), 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:pg14241:25:51
# text = They prate and prattle pleasantly, As they ride on the way, To those that should their butchers be And work their lives' decay:
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	prate	prate	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	prattle	prattle	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	pleasantly	pleasantly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	ride	ride	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	To	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	obj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	butchers	butcher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
21	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	decay	decay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prate** | present | Children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **prattle** *speech: other* | present | Children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pleasantly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ride** | present | Children *= child* |  |  | the way |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | should | those |  |  |  |  | work *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **decay** |  | Children's lives |  |  |  |  |  | nom decay «process intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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