---
title: Fortunately his mother caught him in her apron as he was falling to… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Fortunately his mother caught him in her apron as he was falling to the ground, or he would have been dreadfully hurt. Who acts: mother, Tommy. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 32

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Fortunately his mother caught him in her apron as he was falling to the ground, or he would have been dreadfully hurt.

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**Who acts:** mother, Tommy · **What happens:** catch, fall, hurt · **To what, where:** Tommy, apron

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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 (mother, Tommy), 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:pg7439:28:32
# text = Fortunately his mother caught him in her apron as he was falling to the ground, or he would have been dreadfully hurt.
1	Fortunately	fortunately	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	apron	apron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
22	dreadfully	dreadfully	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	hurt	hurt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | Tommy's mother | Tommy |  | mother's apron |  | fortunately *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past · progressive | Tommy |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 3 | **hurt** | would · perfect · passive |  | Tommy |  |  |  | dreadfully *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=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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