---
title: Well, the Abbot rode off in fear and trembling, and first he went to… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, the Abbot rode off in fear and trembling, and first he went to Oxford to see if any learned doctor could tell him the answer to those questions three; but none could help him, and he took his way to Canterbury, sad and sorrowful, to take leave of his monks. Who acts: Abbot, learned doctor, non
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 14, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Well, the Abbot rode off in fear and trembling, and first he went to Oxford to see if any learned doctor could tell him the answer to those questions three; but none could help him, and he took his way to Canterbury, sad and sorrowful, to take leave of his monks.

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**Who acts:** Abbot, learned doctor, none, doctor · **What happens:** ride off, go, see, learn, tell, help · **To what, where:** fear, Oxford, answer, Abbot, way, Canterbury · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Abbot, learned doctor, none, doctor), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg14241:28:40
# text = Well, the Abbot rode off in fear and trembling, and first he went to Oxford to see if any learned doctor could tell him the answer to those questions three; but none could help him, and he took his way to Canterbury, sad and sorrowful, to take leave of his monks.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Abbot	Abbot	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	trembling	trembling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Oxford	Oxford	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
22	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	doctor	doctor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
32	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
34	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	37	nsubj	_	_
36	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
43	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	Canterbury	Canterbury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
48	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	sorrowful	sorrowful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
52	to	to	PART	TO	_	53	mark	_	_
53	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	advcl	_	_
54	leave	leave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obj	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	57	nmod:poss	_	_
57	monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ride off** | past | the Abbot |  |  | fear and trembling |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **go** | past | Abbot |  |  | Oxford |  | first *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to oxford=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | Abbot *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **learn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | could | any learned doctor | the answer | Abbot |  |  | to that questions | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient answer=Topic |
| 6 | **help** | could | none |  | Abbot |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 7 | **take** | past | doctor | Abbot's way | Canterbury |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent way=Theme to canterbury=Destination |
| 8 | **take** | to-infinitive | doctor *not said here* | leave of Abbot's monks |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leave=Theme |

<!-- .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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