---
title: The fox said: “I can't quite hear you, Johnny-cake, won't you come a… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The fox said: “I can't quite hear you, Johnny-cake, won't you come a little closer?” turning his head a little to one side. Who acts: fox, you. 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/pg7439/34/63/)

<!-- 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/) / 63

# English Fairy Tales, Lazy Jack, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fox said: “I can't quite hear you, Johnny-cake, won't you come a little closer?” turning his head a little to one side.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fox, you · **What happens:** say, not hear, not come, turn · **To what, where:** you, head, one side · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (fox, you), 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:pg7439:34:63
# text = The fox said: “I can't quite hear you, Johnny-cake, won't you come a little closer?” turning his head a little to one side.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
9	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	Johnny	Johnny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	closer	close	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
26	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **hear** *in a quote* | can | the fox *= fox* | you |  |  |  | Johnny cake *obl* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **come** *in a quote* | future | you |  |  |  |  | close *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **turn** | gerund | the fox *not said here* | fox's head |  | one side |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent head=Theme to side=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/62/)
- next →: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/64/)
- ↑ back to [Lazy Jack](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/34/)