---
title: They killed a thief, and sent the best part of it to feed the eagle… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They killed a thief, and sent the best part of it to feed the eagle on his journey over the seas, and had to carry Jack on his back. Who acts: birds, eagle. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, sentence 86

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They killed a thief, and sent the best part of it to feed the eagle on his journey over the seas, and had to carry Jack on his back.

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**Who acts:** birds, eagle · **What happens:** kill, send, feed, have, carry, journey · **To what, where:** thief, best part, eagle, journey, Jack, back

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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 (birds, eagle), 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:pg7439:20:86
# text = They killed a thief, and sent the best part of it to feed the eagle on his journey over the seas, and had to carry Jack on his back.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	10	amod	_	_
10	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	feed	feed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	seas	sea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** | past | birds *= bird* | a thief |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thief=Theme |
| 2 | **send** | past | birds *= bird* *not said here* | the best part of castle |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent part=Theme |
| 3 | **feed** | to-infinitive | birds *= bird* *not said here* |  | the eagle | eagle's journey |  | over the seas | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eagle=Recipient |
| 4 | **have** | past | birds *= bird* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **carry** | to-infinitive | birds *= bird* *not said here* | Jack |  | eagle's back |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jack=Theme |
| 6 | **journey** |  | eagle |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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