---
title: (He meant that he could do any foolish bit of work, that would be wa… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: (He meant that he could do any foolish bit of work, that would be wanted about the house.) Who acts: Jack. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, sentence 20

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(He meant that he could do any foolish bit of work, that would be wanted about the house.)

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**Who acts:** Jack · **What happens:** mean, do, want · **To what, where:** foolish bit, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Jack), 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:pg7439:20:20
# text = (He meant that he could do any foolish bit of work, that would be wanted about the house.)
1	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
8	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
9	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	wanted	want	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** | could | Jack | any foolish bit of work |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bit=Eventuality |
| 3 | **want** | would · passive |  | that |  |  |  | about the house | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |

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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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