---
title: Just then, who should come in but a little red calf, and said to her… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Just then, who should come in but a little red calf, and said to her: "Put your finger into my left ear." A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 14, sentence 80

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Just then, who should come in but a little red calf, and said to her: "Put your finger into my left ear."

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**What happens:** come in, say, put · **To what, where:** wife, finger, left ear · **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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg14241:28:80
# text = Just then, who should come in but a little red calf, and said to her: "Put your finger into my left ear."
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	calf	calf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
21	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come in** | should |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | wife |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 3 | **put** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | your finger |  | my left ear |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent finger=Goal |

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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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