---
title: Our story is shortly referred to thus: "He would present himself to… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Our story is shortly referred to thus: "He would present himself to some old dame gathering sticks, in the form of a truss of straw, which she would be sure to take up and carry away. Who acts: _, old dame, Kow. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LIII. the Hedley Kow, with it
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, LIII. the Hedley Kow, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Our story is shortly referred to thus: "He would present himself to some old dame gathering sticks, in the form of a truss of straw, which she would be sure to take up and carry away.

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**Who acts:** \_, old dame, Kow · **What happens:** refer, present, gather, be, take up, carry away · **To what, where:** story, \_, old dame, form, sticks, truss

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LIII. the Hedley Kow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (\_, old dame, Kow), 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:pg14241:44:9
# text = Our story is shortly referred to thus: "He would present himself to some old dame gathering sticks, in the form of a truss of straw, which she would be sure to take up and carry away.
1	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	shortly	shortly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	referred	refer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	present	present	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
13	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	dame	dame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	gathering	gather	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	truss	truss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	straw	straw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	ccomp	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
34	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	_
37	up	up	ADP	RP	_	36	compound:prt	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	conj	_	_
40	away	away	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refer** | present · passive |  | Our story |  |  |  | shortly *property* | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to thus=Recipient |
| 2 | **present** *in a quote* | would | \_ | \_ | some old dame | the form of a truss of straw |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent himself=Theme to dame=Recipient |
| 3 | **gather** *in a quote* | gerund | some old dame *not said here* | sticks |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | would | Kow |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **take up** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Kow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **carry away** *in a quote* | infinitive | Kow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **form** *in a quote* |  |  | a truss of straw |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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