---
title: A needle dangled by his side; A dapper mouse he used to ride, Thus s… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A needle dangled by his side; A dapper mouse he used to ride, Thus strutted Tom in stately pride! Who acts: needle. 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 50

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A needle dangled by his side; A dapper mouse he used to ride, Thus strutted Tom in stately pride!

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**Who acts:** needle · **What happens:** dangle, use, ride, strut · **To what, where:** needle, Tom, stately pride

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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 (needle), 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:pg7439:28:50
# text = A needle dangled by his side; A dapper mouse he used to ride, Thus strutted Tom in stately pride!
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	dangled	dangle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	dapper	dapper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	ride	ride	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	strutted	strut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
18	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	stately	stately	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	pride	pride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dangle** | participle |  | a needle *not said here* |  |  |  | by needle's side | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by side=Location |
| 2 | **use** | past | a needle |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **ride** | to-infinitive | a needle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **strut** | participle | a needle *not said here* | Tom |  | stately pride |  | thus *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent tom=Theme in pride=Trajectory |

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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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