---
title: At last," quoth he, "a bite worth having!" and he pulled and he pull… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At last," quoth he, "a bite worth having!" and he pulled and he pulled, till what should appear above the water but a head like an elf's, with nine holes on each side of its mouth. Who acts: you, fishing. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, w
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, sentence 95

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At last," quoth he, "a bite worth having!" and he pulled and he pulled, till what should appear above the water but a head like an elf's, with nine holes on each side of its mouth.

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**Who acts:** you, fishing · **What happens:** quoth, have, pull, appear · **To what, where:** fishing, last, water

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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 (you, 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:pg14241:32:95
# text = At last," quoth he, "a bite worth having!" and he pulled and he pulled, till what should appear above the water but a head like an elf's, with nine holes on each side of its mouth.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	_
5	quoth	quoth	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bite	bite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
12	having	have	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
26	above	above	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
32	like	like	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	elf	elf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	's	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nummod	_	_
39	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
40	on	on	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	42	det	_	_
42	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **quoth** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | fishing |  | last |  | a bite *obl* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pull** *in a quote* | past | fishing |  |  |  |  |  | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **pull** *in a quote* | past | fishing |  |  |  |  |  | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **appear** *in a quote* | should | fishing *not said here* |  |  | the water but a head |  | like a elf; with nine holes on each side of side's mouth | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location what=Theme |

<!-- .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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