---
title: Now there was an old man just by on the top of a ladder thatching a… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now there was an old man just by on the top of a ladder thatching a rick, and when he saw the little girl spill the milk, he said: “Little girl, what do you mean by spilling the milk, your little brothers and sisters must go without their supper.” Who acts: old man, ladder, man, little girl. A sente
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now there was an old man just by on the top of a ladder thatching a rick, and when he saw the little girl spill the milk, he said: “Little girl, what do you mean by spilling the milk, your little brothers and sisters must go without their supper.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, ladder, man, little girl, you, little brothers · **What happens:** be, thatch, see, spill, say, mean · **To what, where:** rick, milk, Little girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, ladder, man, little girl), 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:pg7439:19:31
# text = Now there was an old man just by on the top of a ladder thatching a rick, and when he saw the little girl spill the milk, he said: “Little girl, what do you mean by spilling the milk, your little brothers and sisters must go without their supper.”
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
7	just	just	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	thatching	thatch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	rick	rick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	spill	spill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
33	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	Little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	40	obj	_	_
38	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
41	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
42	spilling	spill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	52	advcl	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
46	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
47	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	nsubj	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	conj	_	_
51	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
52	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	parataxis	_	_
53	without	without	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a old man by the top of a ladder |  |  | there | now |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **thatch** | gerund | a ladder *not said here* | a rick |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent rick=Destination |
| 3 | **see** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **spill** | infinitive | the little girl | the milk |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location milk=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **mean** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you | Little girl |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 7 | **spill** *in a quote* | gerund | your little brothers and sisters *not said here* | the milk |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location milk=Theme |
| 8 | **go** *in a quote* | must | your little brothers and sisters |  |  |  |  | without brothers's supper | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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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