---
title: Mr. Gomme gives evidence that it was an archaic custom to put oldste… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Mr. Gomme gives evidence that it was an archaic custom to put oldsters to death after they had become helpless. Who acts: Gomme, evidence, oldsters. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XXVIII. How Wicked Sons Were Duped., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, XXVIII. How Wicked Sons Were Duped., sentence 14

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Mr. Gomme gives evidence that it was an archaic custom to put oldsters to death after they had become helpless.

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**Who acts:** Gomme, evidence, oldsters · **What happens:** give, be, put, become · **To what, where:** evidence, archaic custom, oldsters

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XXVIII. How Wicked Sons Were Duped.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Gomme, evidence, oldsters), 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:pg7128:59:14
# text = Mr. Gomme gives evidence that it was an archaic custom to put oldsters to death after they had become helpless.
1	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod:desc	_	_
2	Gomme	Gomme	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gives	give	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	evidence	evidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	archaic	archaic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	acl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
13	oldsters	oldster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
20	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | present | Gomme  Mr. | evidence |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evidence=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | evidence | a archaic custom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **put** | to-infinitive | Gomme  Mr. *not said here* | oldsters |  |  |  | to death | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent oldster=Goal |
| 4 | **become** | past · perfect | oldsters *= oldster* |  |  |  |  | helpless *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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:** «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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