---
title: Merlin was much pleased with the kindness of the ploughman and his w… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Merlin was much pleased with the kindness of the ploughman and his wife; but he could not help noticing that though everything was neat and comfortable in the cottage, they seemed both to be very unhappy. Who acts: Merlin, everything, wife. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The H
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Merlin was much pleased with the kindness of the ploughman and his wife; but he could not help noticing that though everything was neat and comfortable in the cottage, they seemed both to be very unhappy.

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**Who acts:** Merlin, everything, wife · **What happens:** be, not help, notice, seem · **To what, where:** cottage, both

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Merlin, everything, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7439:28:4
# text = Merlin was much pleased with the kindness of the ploughman and his wife; but he could not help noticing that though everything was neat and comfortable in the cottage, they seemed both to be very unhappy.
1	Merlin	Merlin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	kindness	kindness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	ploughman	ploughman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
20	noticing	notice	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	25	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	neat	neat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	comfortable	comfortable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
34	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	obj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
36	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	cop	_	_
37	very	very	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Merlin |  |  |  |  | with the kindness of the ploughman and Merlin's wife; pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **help** | could | Merlin |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **notice** *not said to happen* | gerund | Merlin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | everything |  |  | the cottage |  | neat *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | everything *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **seem** | past | wife | both |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme both=Attribute |
| 7 | **is** | to-infinitive | wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unhappy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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