---
title: I was digging away at old Mr. Fordyce's grave when I suppose I must… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I was digging away at old Mr. Fordyce's grave when I suppose I must have dropped asleep, and only woke up by hearing a cat's _Miaou_." Who acts: I. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, sentence 14

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I was digging away at old Mr. Fordyce's grave when I suppose I must have dropped asleep, and only woke up by hearing a cat's \_Miaou\_."

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** dig away, suppose, drop, wake up, hear · **To what, where:** cat · **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 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg14241:29:14
# text = I was digging away at old Mr. Fordyce's grave when I suppose I must have dropped asleep, and only woke up by hearing a cat's _Miaou_."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	digging	dig	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	away	away	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
7	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:desc	_	_
8	Fordyce	Fordyce	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	suppose	suppose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	_
18	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	woke	wake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	's	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	Miaou	Miaou	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig away** | past · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | at Fordyce  Mr.'s old grave; away *property* | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at grave=Theme |
| 2 | **suppose** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **drop** | must · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wake up** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **hear** | gerund |  | a cat |  |  |  | Miaou *obl* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer cat=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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