---
title: It was told to Mrs. Balfour by a labourer, who professed to be the h… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was told to Mrs. Balfour by a labourer, who professed to be the hero of the story, and related it in the first person. Who acts: Mrs., labourer. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XLIX. Yallery Brown, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, XLIX. Yallery Brown, sentence 3

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It was told to Mrs. Balfour by a labourer, who professed to be the hero of the story, and related it in the first person.

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**Who acts:** Mrs., labourer · **What happens:** tell, profess, be, relate · **To what, where:** Source, hero · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XLIX. Yallery Brown. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mrs., labourer), 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:pg14241:40:3
# text = It was told to Mrs. Balfour by a labourer, who professed to be the hero of the story, and related it in the first person.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Mrs.	Mrs.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl:agent	_	_
6	Balfour	Balfour	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	flat	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	labourer	labourer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	professed	profess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	related	relate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	27	amod	_	_
27	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive | Mrs. | Source |  |  |  | by a labourer | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **profess** | past | a labourer |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive | a labourer *not said here* | the hero |  |  |  | of the story | tree rules |
| 4 | **relate** | past | Mrs. *not said here* | Source |  |  |  | in the first person *goal* | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent it=Theme in person=Goal |

<!-- .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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