---
title: Our little hero had some difficulty in lifting the burden upon his b… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Our little hero had some difficulty in lifting the burden upon his back; but he at last succeeded in getting it placed to his mind, and set forward on his journey. Who acts: little hero, difficulty, burden, Tom. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with its
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Our little hero had some difficulty in lifting the burden upon his back; but he at last succeeded in getting it placed to his mind, and set forward on his journey.

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**Who acts:** little hero, difficulty, burden, Tom · **What happens:** have, lift, succeed, get, place, set forward · **To what, where:** difficulty, burden, back

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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 (little hero, difficulty, burden, Tom), 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:pg7439:28:44
# text = Our little hero had some difficulty in lifting the burden upon his back; but he at last succeeded in getting it placed to his mind, and set forward on his journey.
1	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	lifting	lift	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	burden	burden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
18	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
19	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	csubj	_	_
20	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	csubj	_	_
30	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Our little hero | some difficulty |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent difficulty=Patient |
| 2 | **lift** | gerund | some difficulty *not said here* | the burden |  | Tom's back |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent burden=Theme upon back=Destination |
| 3 | **succeed** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **get** | gerund |  | burden |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **place** | participle | burden *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to Tom's mind | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **set forward** | past |  |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **mind** |  | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 8 | **journey** |  | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «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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