---
title: “Ah, ah! my little Tommy,” said the boy, “so I have caught you steal… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ah, ah! my little Tommy,” said the boy, “so I have caught you stealing my cherry-stones at last, and you shall be rewarded for your thievish tricks.” Who acts: boy, your. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Ah, ah! my little Tommy,” said the boy, “so I have caught you stealing my cherry-stones at last, and you shall be rewarded for your thievish tricks.”

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**Who acts:** boy, your · **What happens:** say, catch, steal, reward, trick · **To what, where:** boy, cherry stones, last, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (boy, your), 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:pg7439:28:16
# text = “Ah, ah! my little Tommy,” said the boy, “so I have caught you stealing my cherry-stones at last, and you shall be rewarded for your thievish tricks.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	11	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	2	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	Tommy	Tommy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	parataxis	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	cherry	cherry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	rewarded	reward	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	thievish	thievish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **catch** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | the boy *= boy* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **steal** *in a quote* | gerund |  | my cherry stones |  | last |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location stone=Theme |
| 4 | **reward** *in a quote* | shall · passive |  | you |  |  |  | for your thievish tricks | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme for trick=Attribute |
| 5 | **trick** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom trick «act transitive»: poss=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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