---
title: There was once a little boy, and his mother sent him to buy a sheep'… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a little boy, and his mother sent him to buy a sheep's head and pluck; afraid he should forget it, the lad kept saying all the way along: Who acts: mother, boy, lad. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, with its dependency tree 
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, sentence 33

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There was once a little boy, and his mother sent him to buy a sheep's head and pluck; afraid he should forget it, the lad kept saying all the way along:

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**Who acts:** mother, boy, lad · **What happens:** send, buy, be, forget, keep, say · **To what, where:** boy, head, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, boy, lad), 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:pg14241:32:33
# text = There was once a little boy, and his mother sent him to buy a sheep's head and pluck; afraid he should forget it, the lad kept saying all the way along:
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	pluck	pluck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
22	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
31	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	xcomp	_	_
32	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	34	det:predet	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	along	along	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | boy's mother | boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **buy** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | a sheep's head and pluck |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **forget** | should | boy | head |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** | past | the lad |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the lad *not said here* | all way |  |  |  | along *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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