---
title: The young man's father was out all this time, when this talk was goi… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The young man's father was out all this time, when this talk was going on between him and his poor old mother. Who acts: father, talk. 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 5

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The young man's father was out all this time, when this talk was going on between him and his poor old mother.

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**Who acts:** father, talk · **What happens:** be, go on · **To what, where:** time

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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 (father, talk), 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:pg7439:20:5
# text = The young man's father was out all this time, when this talk was going on between him and his poor old mother.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	out	out	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	parataxis	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	between	between	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
22	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the young man's father | all time |  |  |  | out *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go on** | past · progressive | this talk |  |  |  |  | between son | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme between he=Location |

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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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