---
title: One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard when--whack!… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard when--whack!--something hit her upon the head. Who acts: day Henny penny, something. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack the Giant-killer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack the Giant-killer, sentence 136

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One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard when--whack!--something hit her upon the head.

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**Who acts:** day Henny penny, something · **What happens:** pick up, hit · **To what, where:** corn, cornyard, penny, head

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack the Giant-killer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (day Henny penny, something), 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:pg7439:23:136
# text = One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard when--whack!--something hit her upon the head.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
3	Henny	Henny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cornyard	cornyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	whack	whack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	19	nsubj	_	_
19	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pick up** | past · progressive | day Henny penny | corn |  | the cornyard |  | whack *obl* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent corn=Topic |
| 2 | **hit** | past | something | penny |  | the head |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent she=Theme upon head=Destination |

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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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