---
title: But Johnny-cake soon outstripped them also, and seeing they could ne… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But Johnny-cake soon outstripped them also, and seeing they could never catch him, they gave up the chase and sat down to rest. Who acts: Johnny cake, seeing, diggers. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Lazy Jack, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Lazy Jack, sentence 49

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But Johnny-cake soon outstripped them also, and seeing they could never catch him, they gave up the chase and sat down to rest.

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**Who acts:** Johnny cake, seeing, diggers · **What happens:** outstrip, see, not catch, give up, sit down, rest · **To what, where:** diggers, Johnny, chase

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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 (Johnny cake, seeing, diggers), 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:pg7439:34:49
# text = But Johnny-cake soon outstripped them also, and seeing they could never catch him, they gave up the chase and sat down to rest.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	Johnny	Johnny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	outstripped	outstrip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	also	also	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	csubj	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	down	down	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	rest	rest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **outstrip** | past | Johnny cake | diggers *= digger* |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot they=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | gerund |  | diggers *= digger* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **catch** | could | seeing | Johnny |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **give up** | past | diggers *= digger* | the chase |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chase=Source |
| 5 | **sit down** | past | diggers *= digger* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **rest** | to-infinitive | diggers *= digger* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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