---
title: But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as he could when thu… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard the giant's footstep, and his wife hid Jack away in the oven. Who acts: Jack, wife. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and the Beanstalk, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack and the Beanstalk, sentence 85

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But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard the giant's footstep, and his wife hid Jack away in the oven.

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**Who acts:** Jack, wife · **What happens:** begin, munch, hear, hide away · **To what, where:** luck, footstep, Jack, oven

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and the Beanstalk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jack, wife), 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:pg7439:16:85
# text = But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard the giant's footstep, and his wife hid Jack away in the oven.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	begun	begin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	munching	munch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	nsubj	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
14	thump	thump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
16	thump	thump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
18	thump	thump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	footstep	footstep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
31	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
32	away	away	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	oven	oven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past · perfect | Jack |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **munch** | gerund | Jack *not said here* | luck |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **hear** | past |  | the giant's footstep |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer footstep=Stimulus |
| 4 | **hide away** | past | Jack's wife | Jack |  | the oven |  | away *property* | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent jack=Patient in oven=Location |

<!-- .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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