---
title: They came, in such great numbers that before night he had only twope… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They came, in such great numbers that before night he had only twopence left for himself. Who acts: debts, prince. 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 38

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They came, in such great numbers that before night he had only twopence left for himself.

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**Who acts:** debts, prince · **What happens:** come, have, leave · **To what, where:** such great numbers, twopence

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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 (debts, prince), 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:pg7439:23:38
# text = They came, in such great numbers that before night he had only twopence left for himself.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	obj	_	_
9	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
13	only	only	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	twopence	twopence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | debts *= debt* |  |  | such great numbers |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in number=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | prince | such great numbers |  |  | night |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** | participle |  | twopence *not said here* |  |  |  | for prince | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent for himself=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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