---
title: Jack took the mutton, tied it to a string, and trailed it along afte… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Jack took the mutton, tied it to a string, and trailed it along after him in the dirt, so that by the time he had got home the meat was completely spoilt. Who acts: Jack. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Lazy Jack, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/22/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / [Lazy Jack](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/) / 22

# English Fairy Tales, Lazy Jack, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Jack took the mutton, tied it to a string, and trailed it along after him in the dirt, so that by the time he had got home the meat was completely spoilt.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jack · **What happens:** take, tie, trail, get, spoil · **To what, where:** mutton, dirt, meat

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Lazy Jack. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jack), 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:pg7439:34:22
# text = Jack took the mutton, tied it to a string, and trailed it along after him in the dirt, so that by the time he had got home the meat was completely spoilt.
1	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	mutton	mutton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	trailed	trail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	along	along	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
16	after	after	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	dirt	dirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
22	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
30	home	home	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux:pass	_	_
34	completely	completely	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	spoilt	spoil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Jack | the mutton |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mutton=Theme |
| 2 | **tie** | past | Jack *not said here* | mutton |  |  |  | to a string | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient to string=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **trail** | past | Jack *not said here* | mutton |  | the dirt | after Jack | along *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in dirt=Trajectory |
| 4 | **get** | past · perfect | Jack |  |  |  | time | home *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **spoil** | past · passive |  | the meat |  |  |  | completely *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/21/)
- next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/23/)
- ↑ back to [Lazy Jack](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/)