---
title: “Ye can, can ye?” growled the bear, “we'll see about that!” and trot… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Ye can, can ye?” growled the bear, “we'll see about that!” and trotted as fast as his legs could carry him after Johnny-cake, who never stopped to look behind him. Who acts: we, legs, Johnny cake. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Lazy Jack, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Lazy Jack, sentence 53

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“Ye can, can ye?” growled the bear, “we'll see about that!” and trotted as fast as his legs could carry him after Johnny-cake, who never stopped to look behind him.

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**Who acts:** we, legs, Johnny cake · **What happens:** growl, see, trot, carry, not stop, look · **To what, where:** bear

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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 (we, legs, Johnny cake), 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:pg7439:34:53
# text = “Ye can, can ye?” growled the bear, “we'll see about that!” and trotted as fast as his legs could carry him after Johnny-cake, who never stopped to look behind him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	growled	growl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	trotted	trot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	after	after	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	Johnny	Johnny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
37	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	acl:relcl	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **growl** | past |  | the bear |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | future | we |  |  |  |  | about that | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **trot** | past |  |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **carry** | could | bear's legs | bear |  |  | after Johnny cake |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **stop** | past | Johnny cake |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **look** | to-infinitive | Johnny cake *not said here* |  |  |  |  | behind bear | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent behind he=Theme |

<!-- .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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