---
title: "That a crane should take thought for the fishes is a thing unheard… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "That a crane should take thought for the fishes is a thing unheard of, sir, since the world began. Who acts: world. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, sentence 84

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"That a crane should take thought for the fishes is a thing unheard of, sir, since the world began.

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**Who acts:** world · **What happens:** think, be, begin · **To what, where:** crane, thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (world), 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:pg7128:11:84
# text = "That a crane should take thought for the fishes is a thing unheard of, sir, since the world began.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	crane	crane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
14	unheard	unheard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | should · passive |  | that crane |  |  |  | for the fishes | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | a thing and sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **begin** *in a quote* | past | the world |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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