---
title: My defence might be that I had a cause at heart as sacred as our sci… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: My defence might be that I had a cause at heart as sacred as our science of folk-lore--the filling of our children's imaginations with bright trains of images. Who acts: I, My, children. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Ætat. XIII, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, Ætat. XIII, sentence 13

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My defence might be that I had a cause at heart as sacred as our science of folk-lore--the filling of our children's imaginations with bright trains of images.

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**Who acts:** I, My, children · **What happens:** be, defend, imagine

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Ætat. XIII. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, My, children), 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:pg14241:4:13
# text = My defence might be that I had a cause at heart as sacred as our science of folk-lore--the filling of our children's imaginations with bright trains of images.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	defence	defence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	sacred	sacred	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	nmod	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	science	science	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	lore	lore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	filling	filling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	imaginations	imagination	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	trains	train	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	images	image	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | infinitive | I |  |  |  |  | have *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **defend** |  | My |  |  |  |  |  | nom defence «process transitive»: poss=agent |
| 3 | **imagine** |  | our children |  |  |  |  | with bright trains of images | nom imagination «cognition transitive»: poss=agent with=obl |

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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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