---
title: And when this was known, who should be first but a nasty rough old m… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And when this was known, who should be first but a nasty rough old man. 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 72

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And when this was known, who should be first but a nasty rough old man.

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**What happens:** know, be · **To what, where:** this

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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: 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:pg14241:31:72
# text = And when this was known, who should be first but a nasty rough old man.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
8	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	parataxis	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
13	nasty	nasty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
14	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past · passive |  | this |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | should |  |  |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |

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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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