---
title: _--Riddles were once on a time serious things to meddle with, as wit… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: _--Riddles were once on a time serious things to meddle with, as witness Samson and the Sphynx, and other instances duly noted with his customary erudition by Prof. Who acts: Riddles, Prof. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LXXII. King John and the Abbot, with its dependency
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, LXXII. King John and the Abbot, sentence 12

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\_--Riddles were once on a time serious things to meddle with, as witness Samson and the Sphynx, and other instances duly noted with his customary erudition by Prof.

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**Who acts:** Riddles, Prof · **What happens:** be, note · **To what, where:** other

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LXXII. King John and the Abbot. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Riddles, Prof), 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:pg14241:63:12
# text = _--Riddles were once on a time serious things to meddle with, as witness Samson and the Sphynx, and other instances duly noted with his customary erudition by Prof.
1	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Riddles	riddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	advmod	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
9	serious	serious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	meddle	meddle	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	witness	witness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	Samson	Samson	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Sphynx	Sphynx	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	instances	instance	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	duly	duly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	noted	note	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	customary	customary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	erudition	erudition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	Prof	Prof	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Riddles |  |  |  | time | as witness Samson and the Sphynx; meddle, once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **note** | present · passive | Prof | other |  |  |  | with Sphynx's customary erudition; duly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent subject=Topic |

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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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