---
title: Great was his surprise to behold Habetrot dancing and jumping over h… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Great was his surprise to behold Habetrot dancing and jumping over her rock, singing all the time this ditty to her sisterhood, while they kept time with their spindles:-- Who acts: Great surprise, sisterhood. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 39

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Great was his surprise to behold Habetrot dancing and jumping over her rock, singing all the time this ditty to her sisterhood, while they kept time with their spindles:--

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**Who acts:** Great surprise, sisterhood · **What happens:** be, behold, jump, sing, keep · **To what, where:** Great surprise, Habetrot dancing, rock, ditty, sisterhood

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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 (Great surprise, sisterhood), 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:pg14241:31:39
# text = Great was his surprise to behold Habetrot dancing and jumping over her rock, singing all the time this ditty to her sisterhood, while they kept time with their spindles:--
1	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	Habetrot	Habetrot	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	jumping	jump	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
11	over	over	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	ditty	ditty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	sisterhood	sisterhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	spindles	spindle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	--	--	PUNCT	NFP	_	6	discourse	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | troth's Great surprise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **behold** | infinitive | troth's Great surprise | Habetrot dancing |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dancing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **jump** | gerund | troth's Great surprise *not said here* |  |  | surprise's rock |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over rock=Trajectory |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | troth's Great surprise *not said here* | this ditty | surprise's sisterhood |  | time |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent ditty=Topic to sisterhood=Recipient |
| 5 | **keep** | past | sisterhood |  |  |  | time | with sisterhood's spindles | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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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