---
title: “Goodness gracious me!” said Henny-penny; “the sky's a-going to fall… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Goodness gracious me!” said Henny-penny; “the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the king.” Who acts: Henny penny, sky. 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 137

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“Goodness gracious me!” said Henny-penny; “the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the king.”

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**Who acts:** Henny penny, sky · **What happens:** say, go, fall, tell · **To what, where:** king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Henny penny, sky), 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:pg7439:23:137
# text = “Goodness gracious me!” said Henny-penny; “the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the king.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Goodness	goodness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	gracious	gracious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Henny	Henny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Henny penny |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the sky |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fall** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the sky *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **go** *in a quote* | must | Henny penny *= penny* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | Henny penny *= penny* *not said here* |  | the king |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent king=Recipient |

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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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