---
title: Why, a small coffin covered with a black velvet pall, and on the pal… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Why, a small coffin covered with a black velvet pall, and on the pall was a small coronet all of gold, and at every third step they took they cried all together, _Miaou_--" Who acts: Cats. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, with its dependen
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 15, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why, a small coffin covered with a black velvet pall, and on the pall was a small coronet all of gold, and at every third step they took they cried all together, \_Miaou\_--"

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**Who acts:** Cats · **What happens:** cover, be, take, cry · **To what, where:** small coffin, small coronet, pall, third step

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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 (Cats), 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:pg14241:29:22
# text = Why, a small coffin covered with a black velvet pall, and on the pall was a small coronet all of gold, and at every third step they took they cried all together, _Miaou_--"
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	coffin	coffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
6	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	velvet	velvet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	pall	pall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pall	pall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	coronet	coronet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
21	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
28	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	29	amod	_	_
29	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
34	all	all	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	together	together	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	Miaou	Miaou	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | participle |  | a small coffin *not said here* |  |  |  | with a black velvet pall | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with pall=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | a small coronet |  | the pall |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past | Cats *= cat* | every third step *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent step=Theme |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Cats *= cat* |  |  |  |  | at every third step; together *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at step=Location |

<!-- .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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