---
title: And the worse his luck, the worse grew his language, till the passer… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: And the worse his luck, the worse grew his language, till the passers-by were horrified at his words as they went to listen to the Mass-priest. Who acts: worse, words, fishing. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, sentence 93

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the worse his luck, the worse grew his language, till the passers-by were horrified at his words as they went to listen to the Mass-priest.

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**Who acts:** worse, words, fishing · **What happens:** grow, horrify, go, listen, word · **To what, where:** language, words

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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 (worse, words, fishing), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg14241:32:93
# text = And the worse his luck, the worse grew his language, till the passers-by were horrified at his words as they went to listen to the Mass-priest.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	nsubj	_	_
9	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	till	till	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	passers	passer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	horrified	horrify	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	Mass	Mass	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the worse | fishing's language |  |  | till the passers |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location language=Theme |
| 2 | **horrify** | past · passive | the worse *not said here* |  |  | fishing's words |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 3 | **go** | past | words *= word* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **listen** | to-infinitive | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the Mass priest | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to priest=Theme |
| 5 | **word** |  | fishing |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=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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