---
title: The prince asked the reason of it, and was told that they had arrest… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince asked the reason of it, and was told that they had arrested a corpse for several large sums of money which the deceased owed when he died. Who acts: prince. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack the Giant-killer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack the Giant-killer, sentence 36

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The prince asked the reason of it, and was told that they had arrested a corpse for several large sums of money which the deceased owed when he died.

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**Who acts:** prince · **What happens:** ask, tell, arrest, owe, die, sum · **To what, where:** reason, people, money · **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 (prince), 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:pg7439:23:36
# text = The prince asked the reason of it, and was told that they had arrested a corpse for several large sums of money which the deceased owed when he died.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	arrested	arrest	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	ccomp	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	corpse	corpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	sums	sum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	deceased	decease	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	owed	owe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the prince | the reason of reason |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent reason=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: clause=Topic |
| 3 | **arrest** | past · perfect · passive |  | people |  |  |  | for several large sums of money | tree rules |
| 4 | **owe** | past · passive |  | money |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **die** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **sum** |  |  | money |  |  |  |  | nom sum «possession transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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