---
title: I shall ne'er do my task:" on which the old woman proposed to do it… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I shall ne'er do my task:" on which the old woman proposed to do it for her. Who acts: I, my. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 10

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I shall ne'er do my task:" on which the old woman proposed to do it for her.

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**Who acts:** I, my · **What happens:** do, propose, task · **To what, where:** task, old woman

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, my), 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:pg14241:31:10
# text = I shall ne'er do my task:" on which the old woman proposed to do it for her.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	ne'er	ne'er	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	advcl	_	_
14	proposed	propose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | shall | I | my task |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Eventuality |
| 2 | **propose** *in a quote* | participle |  | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | task |  |  |  | for ne'er | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **task** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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