---
title: The wife of the farmer was a very foolish woman, who had been a wido… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The wife of the farmer was a very foolish woman, who had been a widow when he married her; the farmer was foolish enough, too, and it is hard to say which of the two was the more foolish. Who acts: wife, foolish woman, man, farmer. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack Hannaford
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack Hannaford, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The wife of the farmer was a very foolish woman, who had been a widow when he married her; the farmer was foolish enough, too, and it is hard to say which of the two was the more foolish.

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**Who acts:** wife, foolish woman, man, farmer, two · **What happens:** be, marry, say · **To what, where:** foolish woman, widow, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack Hannaford. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, foolish woman, man, farmer), 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:pg7439:13:3
# text = The wife of the farmer was a very foolish woman, who had been a widow when he married her; the farmer was foolish enough, too, and it is hard to say which of the two was the more foolish.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	widow	widow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	married	marry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
26	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	too	too	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	expl	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	csubj	_	_
36	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	obj	_	_
37	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	43	nsubj	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	43	advmod	_	_
43	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the wife of the farmer | a foolish woman and a widow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past · perfect | a foolish woman and a widow | a widow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **marry** | past | man | wife |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | the farmer |  |  |  |  | enough, foolish *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | present | the farmer *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent which=Topic |
| 7 | **is** | past | the two |  |  |  |  | foolish *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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