---
title: He took his own lassies out of bed on to the floor, and battered the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He took his own lassies out of bed on to the floor, and battered them until they were dead, and then lay down again, thinking he had managed fine. Who acts: voice, lassies. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Molly Whuppie, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Molly Whuppie, sentence 24

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He took his own lassies out of bed on to the floor, and battered them until they were dead, and then lay down again, thinking he had managed fine.

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**Who acts:** voice, lassies · **What happens:** take, batter, be, lay down, think, manage · **To what, where:** own lassies, bed, lassies · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Molly Whuppie. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voice, lassies), 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:pg7439:25:24
# text = He took his own lassies out of bed on to the floor, and battered them until they were dead, and then lay down again, thinking he had managed fine.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	lassies	lassie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	battered	batter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	lay	lay	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
25	down	down	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	again	again	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	managed	manage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	ccomp	_	_
32	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | voice | voice's own lassies |  | bed |  | on the floor | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent lassie=Theme on floor=Destination |
| 2 | **batter** | past | voice *not said here* | lassies *= lassie* |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | lassies *= lassie* |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **lay down** | infinitive |  |  |  |  | then; again | down *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **manage** | past · perfect | voice |  |  |  |  | fine *property* | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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