---
title: “Well,” says they, “if you like to wash the pots and scrape the sauc… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well,” says they, “if you like to wash the pots and scrape the saucepans you may stay,” said they. Who acts: you, wages. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Cap O' Rushes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Cap O' Rushes, sentence 18

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“Well,” says they, “if you like to wash the pots and scrape the saucepans you may stay,” said they.

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**Who acts:** you, wages · **What happens:** say, like, wash, scrape, stay · **To what, where:** wages, pots, saucepans · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Cap O' Rushes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, wages), 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:pg7439:15:18
# text = “Well,” says they, “if you like to wash the pots and scrape the saucepans you may stay,” said they.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	scrape	scrape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	saucepans	saucepan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  | wages *= wage* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 2 | **like** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **wash** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the pots |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pot=Patient |
| 4 | **scrape** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* | the saucepans |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent saucepan=Patient |
| 5 | **stay** *in a quote* | may | you | the saucepans *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme saucepan=Location |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | wages *= wage* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «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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