---
title: So he sat down together with his hungry wife, And they did very well… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So he sat down together with his hungry wife, And they did very well without fork or knife, They never ate a better duck in all their life, And the little ones picked the bones-o! Who acts: man, fox, little ones. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, pa
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 66

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So he sat down together with his hungry wife, And they did very well without fork or knife, They never ate a better duck in all their life, And the little ones picked the bones-o!

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**Who acts:** man, fox, little ones · **What happens:** sit down, do, not eat, pick · **To what, where:** better duck, life, bones

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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 (man, fox, little ones), 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:pg14241:31:66
# text = So he sat down together with his hungry wife, And they did very well without fork or knife, They never ate a better duck in all their life, And the little ones picked the bones-o!
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
16	without	without	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	fork	fork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	amod	_	_
26	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
36	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	o	o	INTJ	UH	_	36	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | man |  |  |  |  | with man's hungry wife; together *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | past | fox |  |  |  |  | without fork or knife; well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **eat** | past | fox | a better duck |  | fox's life |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duck=Patient |
| 4 | **pick** | past | the little ones | the bones |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient |

<!-- .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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