---
title: He walked up and down with his purchase; but it was in vain he tried… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He walked up and down with his purchase; but it was in vain he tried to play a tune, and instead of pocketing pence, the boys followed him hooting, laughing, and pelting. Who acts: man, purchase, boys. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Mr. Vinegar, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Mr. Vinegar, sentence 38

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He walked up and down with his purchase; but it was in vain he tried to play a tune, and instead of pocketing pence, the boys followed him hooting, laughing, and pelting.

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**Who acts:** man, purchase, boys · **What happens:** walk, be, try, play, pocket, follow · **To what, where:** vain, tune, pence, man, pelting

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Mr. Vinegar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, purchase, boys), 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:pg7439:11:38
# text = He walked up and down with his purchase; but it was in vain he tried to play a tune, and instead of pocketing pence, the boys followed him hooting, laughing, and pelting.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	conj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	purchase	purchase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	vain	vain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	25	mark	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
25	pocketing	pocket	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
26	pence	pence	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
30	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	hooting	hoot	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	pelting	pelting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past | man |  |  |  |  | with man's purchase | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | purchase |  |  | vain |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **try** | past | man | vain *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **play** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | a tune |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tune=Theme |
| 5 | **pocket** | gerund | man *not said here* | pence |  |  |  |  | vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent pence=Theme |
| 6 | **follow** | past | the boys | man |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 7 | **hoot** | gerund | the boys *not said here* | pelting |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **laugh** | gerund | the boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **purchase** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom purchase «act transitive»: 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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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