---
title: The three little men went off; and when they came near the castle th… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The three little men went off; and when they came near the castle they were afraid to go to it till the gentleman and lady and all the servants were gone out to some dance. Who acts: three little men, man. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, with its 
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, sentence 101

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The three little men went off; and when they came near the castle they were afraid to go to it till the gentleman and lady and all the servants were gone out to some dance.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** three little men, man · **What happens:** go off, come, be, go, go out · **To what, where:** castle, servants

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three little men, man), 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:pg7439:20:101
# text = The three little men went off; and when they came near the castle they were afraid to go to it till the gentleman and lady and all the servants were gone out to some dance.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	near	near	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
22	till	till	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	36	det	_	_
36	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go off** | past | the three little men |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | man |  |  | the castle |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  | castle | till the gentleman and lady |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to it=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **go out** | past · passive |  | all servants |  |  |  | to some dance | tree rules |

<!-- .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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