---
title: His wife cried, “It's me, man;” but the dog barked and the cat mewed… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife cried, “It's me, man;” but the dog barked and the cat mewed, and he did not know his wife's voice. Who acts: wife, giant, dog, cat. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Molly Whuppie, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Molly Whuppie, sentence 56

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His wife cried, “It's me, man;” but the dog barked and the cat mewed, and he did not know his wife's voice.

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**Who acts:** wife, giant, dog, cat · **What happens:** cry, be, bark, mew, not know · **To what, where:** wife, voice · **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 (wife, giant, dog, cat), 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:pg7439:25:56
# text = His wife cried, “It's me, man;” but the dog barked and the cat mewed, and he did not know his wife's voice.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	barked	bark	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	mewed	mew	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Home's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | giant | Home's wife *= wife* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bark** | past | the dog |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **mew** | past | the cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | cat | Home's wife's voice |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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