---
title: So when the first head asked, “What's the thing without an end?” he… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So when the first head asked, “What's the thing without an end?” he said: “A bowl.” Who acts: first head, man. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Red Ettin, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Red Ettin, sentence 54

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So when the first head asked, “What's the thing without an end?” he said: “A bowl.”

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**Who acts:** first head, man · **What happens:** ask, be, say · **To what, where:** thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Red Ettin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (first head, man), 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:pg7439:26:54
# text = So when the first head asked, “What's the thing without an end?” he said: “A bowl.”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	amod	_	_
5	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
13	without	without	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	bowl	bowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the first head |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the thing |  |  | without a end |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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