---
title: So the little pig went off before the time as usual, and got to the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So the little pig went off before the time as usual, and got to the fair, and bought a butter-churn, which he was going home with, when he saw the wolf coming. Who acts: little pig, butter churn, wolf. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of the Three Little Pigs, with its
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Story of the Three Little Pigs, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the little pig went off before the time as usual, and got to the fair, and bought a butter-churn, which he was going home with, when he saw the wolf coming.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little pig, butter churn, wolf · **What happens:** go off, get, buy, go, see, come · **To what, where:** butter churn, wolf

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of the Three Little Pigs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little pig, butter churn, wolf), 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:pg7439:17:55
# text = So the little pig went off before the time as usual, and got to the fair, and bought a butter-churn, which he was going home with, when he saw the wolf coming.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fair	fair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	churn	churn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	acl	_	_
30	home	home	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	35	advmod	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go off** | past | the little pig |  |  |  | time | as usual | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **get** | past | the little pig *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the fair *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to fair=Result |
| 3 | **buy** | past |  | a butter churn |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent churn=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | past · progressive | a butter churn |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | past | wolf | the wolf |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **come** | gerund | the wolf *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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