---
title: Well, one day there was to be a great dance a little way off, and th… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, one day there was to be a great dance a little way off, and the servants were allowed to go and look on at the grand people. Who acts: servants. 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 21

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Well, one day there was to be a great dance a little way off, and the servants were allowed to go and look on at the grand people.

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**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** be, allow, go, look on · **To what, where:** great dance, servants

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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 (servants), 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:pg7439:15:21
# text = Well, one day there was to be a great dance a little way off, and the servants were allowed to go and look on at the grand people.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	11	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	off	off	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a great dance |  |  |  | off *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **allow** | past · passive |  | the servants |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the servants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **look on** | infinitive | the servants *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the grand people | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at people=Theme |

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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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