---
title: I'm going to tell the king the sky's a-falling,” says Henny-penny. — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I'm going to tell the king the sky's a-falling,” says Henny-penny. Who acts: I, going. 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 141

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I'm going to tell the king the sky's a-falling,” says Henny-penny.

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**Who acts:** I, going · **What happens:** go, tell, fall, say · **To what, where:** sky, king, Henny penny · **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 (I, going), 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:pg7439:23:141
# text = I'm going to tell the king the sky's a-falling,” says Henny-penny.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	csubj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
16	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	Henny	Henny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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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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