---
title: Tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb, which was only of… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb, which was only of ordinary size; but as he got older he became very cunning and full of tricks. Who acts: Tom, thumb. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 13

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Tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb, which was only of ordinary size; but as he got older he became very cunning and full of tricks.

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**Who acts:** Tom, thumb · **What happens:** not grow, be, get, become

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, thumb), 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:pg7439:28:13
# text = Tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb, which was only of ordinary size; but as he got older he became very cunning and full of tricks.
1	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	any	any	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
23	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	xcomp	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	very	very	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **grow** | past | Tom |  |  |  |  | large *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | Tom's father's thumb |  |  |  |  | of ordinary size | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** | past | Tom |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **become** | past | Tom |  |  |  |  | cunning *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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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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