---
title: But the more it pressed, the deeper dug the spear-heads into its sid… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the more it pressed, the deeper dug the spear-heads into its sides. Who acts: Worm, deeper. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 19, sentence 3

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But the more it pressed, the deeper dug the spear-heads into its sides.

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**Who acts:** Worm, deeper · **What happens:** press, dig · **To what, where:** spear heads

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Worm, deeper), 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:pg14241:33:3
# text = But the more it pressed, the deeper dug the spear-heads into its sides.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	pressed	press	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	deeper	deep	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	nsubj	_	_
9	dug	dig	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	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 | **press** | past | Worm |  |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **dig** | past | the deeper | the spear heads |  |  |  | into Worm's sides | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent head=Instrument into side=Patient |

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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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