---
title: Late as they have been collected, some dozen of the tales can be tra… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Late as they have been collected, some dozen of the tales can be traced back to the sixteenth century, two of them being quoted by Shakespeare himself. Who acts: Shakespeare. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, _to My Dear Little May_, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# English Fairy Tales, \_to My Dear Little May\_, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Late as they have been collected, some dozen of the tales can be traced back to the sixteenth century, two of them being quoted by Shakespeare himself.

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**Who acts:** Shakespeare · **What happens:** collect, trace back, quote · **To what, where:** tales

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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 (Shakespeare), 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:pg7439:3:33
# text = Late as they have been collected, some dozen of the tales can be traced back to the sixteenth century, two of them being quoted by Shakespeare himself.
1	Late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	collected	collect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
9	dozen	dozen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	parataxis	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	traced	trace	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	back	back	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	sixteenth	sixteenth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	century	century	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	appos	_	_
23	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	quoted	quote	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
27	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Shakespeare	Shakespeare	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
29	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **collect** | present · perfect · passive |  | tales *= tale* |  |  |  | late *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **trace back** | can · passive |  |  |  |  | century |  | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **quote** *speech: other* | gerund · passive | Shakespeare | tales *= tale* |  |  |  | Shakespeare *obl* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic |

<!-- .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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