---
title: You may be sure it took him a long time to work his way through the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: You may be sure it took him a long time to work his way through the briar bush and by the time he was well through Nix Nought Nothing and his sweetheart had run on a tidy step away from him. Who acts: You, it, briar. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing, with its 
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 46

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You may be sure it took him a long time to work his way through the briar bush and by the time he was well through Nix Nought Nothing and his sweetheart had run on a tidy step away from him.

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**Who acts:** You, it, briar · **What happens:** be, take, work, run · **To what, where:** briar, way, briar bush, time, Nothing, sweetheart

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, it, briar), 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:pg7439:12:46
# text = You may be sure it took him a long time to work his way through the briar bush and by the time he was well through Nix Nought Nothing and his sweetheart had run on a tidy step away from him.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	briar	briar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
25	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
26	through	through	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	Nix	Nix	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	Nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	29	compound	_	_
29	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	acl:relcl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	sweetheart	sweetheart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	run	run	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	conj	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	tidy	tidy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
39	away	away	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	from	from	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | You |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | past | it |  | briar |  | time |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |
| 3 | **work** | to-infinitive |  | briar's way |  | the briar bush |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent way=Material |
| 4 | **is** | past | briar | the time *not said here* |  | Nothing |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **run** | past · perfect · passive |  | briar's sweetheart |  |  |  | on a tidy step | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme on step=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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