---
title: It is obviously unfair of Mr. Batten both to illustrate and also to… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It is obviously unfair of Mr. Batten both to illustrate and also to explain so well the Tar Baby Jataka--taking the scientific bread, so to speak, out of a poor folk-lorist's mouth--but his explanations seem to me so convincing that I cannot avoid including them in these Notes. Who acts: writer, exp
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, XXV. the Demon With the Matted Hair., sentence 34

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It is obviously unfair of Mr. Batten both to illustrate and also to explain so well the Tar Baby Jataka--taking the scientific bread, so to speak, out of a poor folk-lorist's mouth--but his explanations seem to me so convincing that I cannot avoid including them in these Notes.

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**Who acts:** writer, explanations, I, Batten · **What happens:** be, illustrate, explain, take, speak, seem · **To what, where:** Tar Baby, scientific bread, mouth, me, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XXV. the Demon With the Matted Hair.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (writer, explanations, I, Batten), 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:pg7128:56:34
# text = It is obviously unfair of Mr. Batten both to illustrate and also to explain so well the Tar Baby Jataka--taking the scientific bread, so to speak, out of a poor folk-lorist's mouth--but his explanations seem to me so convincing that I cannot avoid including them in these Notes.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	obviously	obviously	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	unfair	unfair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:desc	_	_
7	Batten	Batten	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	both	both	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	illustrate	illustrate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	also	also	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	Tar	Tar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	Baby	Baby	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
20	Jataka	Jataka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	scientific	scientific	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
34	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
35	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	lorist	lorist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	's	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	explanations	explanation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nsubj	_	_
44	seem	seem	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
45	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	44	obl	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	convincing	convincing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	xcomp	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
50	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
51	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	53	advmod	_	_
53	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	48	advcl	_	_
54	including	include	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	58	case	_	_
55	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	obj	_	_
56	in	in	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	58	det	_	_
58	Notes	Note	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | writer |  |  |  |  | of Batten  Mr.; obviously, unfair *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **illustrate** | to-infinitive | writer *not said here* |  |  |  |  | both *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **explain** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | writer *not said here* | the Tar Baby |  |  |  | well *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | gerund | writer *not said here* | the scientific bread |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bread=Theme |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | writer *not said here* |  |  | a poor folk lorist's mouth |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **seem** | present | Batten's explanations |  | me |  |  | convincing *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **avoid** | can | I |  |  |  |  | include this Notes | vn avoid-52 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **include** | gerund |  | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 9 | **explain** |  | Batten |  |  |  |  |  | nom explanation «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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