---
title: A large fish swallowed Tom the moment he fell into the sea, which wa… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A large fish swallowed Tom the moment he fell into the sea, which was soon after caught, and bought for the table of King Arthur. Who acts: large fish, Tom. 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 36

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A large fish swallowed Tom the moment he fell into the sea, which was soon after caught, and bought for the table of King Arthur.

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**Who acts:** large fish, Tom · **What happens:** swallow, fall, catch, buy · **To what, where:** Tom, moment, sea

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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 (large fish, Tom), 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:pg7439:28:36
# text = A large fish swallowed Tom the moment he fell into the sea, which was soon after caught, and bought for the table of King Arthur.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
16	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
17	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	bought	buy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	Arthur	Arthur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swallow** | past | a large fish | Tom |  |  | moment |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tom=Patient |
| 2 | **fall** | past | Tom | the moment *not said here* |  | the sea |  |  | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient moment=Result |
| 3 | **catch** | past · passive |  | the sea |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **buy** | participle | a large fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the table of King Arthur | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for table=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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