---
title: One winter's evening the sexton's wife was sitting by the fireside w… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: One winter's evening the sexton's wife was sitting by the fireside with her big black cat, Old Tom, on the other side, both half asleep and waiting for the master to come home. Who acts: evening. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, with its d
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, sentence 10

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One winter's evening the sexton's wife was sitting by the fireside with her big black cat, Old Tom, on the other side, both half asleep and waiting for the master to come home.

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**Who acts:** evening · **What happens:** sit, wait, come · **To what, where:** other side

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (evening), 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:pg14241:29:10
# text = One winter's evening the sexton's wife was sitting by the fireside with her big black cat, Old Tom, on the other side, both half asleep and waiting for the master to come home.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:outer	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sexton	sexton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fireside	fireside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
16	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc:preconj	_	_
29	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	30	advmod	_	_
30	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	conj	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	_
38	home	home	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | One winter's evening |  |  | the other side |  | by the fireside with wife's big black cat | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by fireside=Location |
| 2 | **wait** | gerund | One winter's evening *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the master | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | to-infinitive | One winter's evening *not said here* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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