---
title: They serve to justify the title of Merrie England, which used to be… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They serve to justify the title of Merrie England, which used to be given to this country of ours, and indicate unsuspected capacity for fun and humour among the unlettered classes. Who acts: tales, title. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, _to My Dear Little May_, with its depend
---

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# English Fairy Tales, \_to My Dear Little May\_, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They serve to justify the title of Merrie England, which used to be given to this country of ours, and indicate unsuspected capacity for fun and humour among the unlettered classes.

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**Who acts:** tales, title · **What happens:** serve, justify, use, give, indicate, title · **To what, where:** title, country, unsuspected capacity, Merrie England

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, \_to My Dear Little May\_. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tales, title), 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:pg7439:3:21
# text = They serve to justify the title of Merrie England, which used to be given to this country of ours, and indicate unsuspected capacity for fun and humour among the unlettered classes.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	serve	serve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	justify	justify	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	title	title	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	Merrie	Merrie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	England	England	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	xcomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	ours	our	PRON	PRP	Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	indicate	indicate	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	unsuspected	unsuspected	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	capacity	capacity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	fun	fun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	humour	humour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
30	among	among	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	unlettered	unlettered	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	classes	class	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **serve** | present | tales *= tale* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **justify** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | tales *= tale* *not said here* | the title of Merrie England |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent title=Topic |
| 3 | **use** | past | the title of Merrie England |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **give** | to-infinitive · passive | the title of Merrie England *not said here* |  | this country of ours |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: to country=Recipient |
| 5 | **indicate** | present | tales *= tale* *not said here* | unsuspected capacity |  |  |  | for fun and humour; among the unlettered classes | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot capacity=Topic |
| 6 | **title** |  |  | Merrie England |  |  |  |  | nom title «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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