---
title: It was written with red and black ink, and much of it he could not u… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was written with red and black ink, and much of it he could not understand; but he put his finger on a line and spelled it through. Who acts: much, boy. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Master and His Pupil, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil, sentence 11

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It was written with red and black ink, and much of it he could not understand; but he put his finger on a line and spelled it through.

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**Who acts:** much, boy · **What happens:** write, not understand, put, spell · **To what, where:** copper, finger, line

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Master and His Pupil. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (much, boy), 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:pg7439:18:11
# text = It was written with red and black ink, and much of it he could not understand; but he put his finger on a line and spelled it through.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
8	ink	ink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	spelled	spell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	through	through	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past · passive |  | copper |  |  |  | with red ink | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **understand** | could | much of copper |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **put** | past | boy | boy's finger |  | a line |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent finger=Theme on line=Destination |
| 4 | **spell** | participle |  | copper |  |  |  | through *property* | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent it=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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