---
title: Still more curious is a frequent change of tense from the English pr… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Still more curious is a frequent change of tense from the English present to the past. " A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 20, sentence 49

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Still more curious is a frequent change of tense from the English present to the past. "

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**What happens:** be · **To what, where:** curious frequent change

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 20. 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:pg14241:34:49
# text = Still more curious is a frequent change of tense from the English present to the past. "
1	Still	still	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
3	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	frequent	frequent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	tense	tense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	past	past	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | a curious frequent change |  |  |  | of tense from the English present to the past | 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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