---
title: Upon the long table twelve mice were fastened by the tail, and just… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Upon the long table twelve mice were fastened by the tail, and just in front of each one’s nose, but quite beyond its reach, lay a tempting morsel of fat bacon. Who acts: tail, reach. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/35/86/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Golden Branch, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/35/) / 86

# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Branch, part 2, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Upon the long table twelve mice were fastened by the tail, and just in front of each one’s nose, but quite beyond its reach, lay a tempting morsel of fat bacon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tail, reach · **What happens:** fasten, lay · **To what, where:** twelve mice, front, tempting morsel

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, 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 (tail, reach), 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:pg540:35:86
# text = Upon the long table twelve mice were fastened by the tail, and just in front of each one’s nose, but quite beyond its reach, lay a tempting morsel of fat bacon.
1	Upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	just	just	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
24	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	reach	reach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	tempting	tempting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	morsel	morsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	bacon	bacon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fasten** | past · passive | the tail | twelve mice |  | front of each one's nose |  | upon the long table | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 2 | **lay** | infinitive | nose's reach | a tempting morsel of fat bacon |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent morsel=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/35/85/)
- next →: [sentence 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/35/87/)
- ↑ back to [The Golden Branch, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/35/)