---
title: The parson scratched himself behind the ears and hesitated; but at l… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The parson scratched himself behind the ears and hesitated; but at last he thought he had better give the money and be quit of him. Who acts: parson. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Two Princes, part 2, sentence 121

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The parson scratched himself behind the ears and hesitated; but at last he thought he had better give the money and be quit of him.

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**Who acts:** parson · **What happens:** scratch, hesitate, think, have, give, quit · **To what, where:** parson, ears, last, money · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (parson), 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:pg29672:23:121
# text = The parson scratched himself behind the ears and hesitated; but at last he thought he had better give the money and be quit of him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	parson	parson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	hesitated	hesitate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
18	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	19	advmod	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	quit	quit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scratch** | past | the parson | parson |  | the ears |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient behind ear=Location |
| 2 | **hesitate** | participle | the parson *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | parson |  |  | last |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | parson |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **give** | infinitive | parson *not said here* | the money |  |  |  | well *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme |
| 6 | **quit** | infinitive · passive | parson *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of parson | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V» |

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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:** «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», Project Gutenberg book 29672 (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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