---
title: Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a ma… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb, that he determined to grant the poor woman's wish. Who acts: Merlin, poor woman. 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 7

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Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb, that he determined to grant the poor woman's wish.

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**Who acts:** Merlin, poor woman · **What happens:** amuse, determine, grant, wish · **To what, where:** Merlin, wish

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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 (Merlin, poor woman), 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:pg7439:28:7
# text = Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb, that he determined to grant the poor woman's wish.
1	Merlin	Merlin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	amused	amuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	no	no	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	amod	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	thumb	thumb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	determined	determine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	grant	grant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	's	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **amuse** | past · passive |  | Merlin |  |  |  | with the idea of a boy | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **determine** | past | Merlin |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **grant** | to-infinitive | Merlin *not said here* | the poor woman's wish |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent wish=Theme |
| 4 | **wish** |  | the poor woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom wish «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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