---
title: “You can, can you?” yelped the fox, and he snapped up the Johnny-cak… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “You can, can you?” yelped the fox, and he snapped up the Johnny-cake in his sharp teeth in the twinkling of an eye. Who acts: fox. 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 68

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“You can, can you?” yelped the fox, and he snapped up the Johnny-cake in his sharp teeth in the twinkling of an eye.

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**Who acts:** fox · **What happens:** yelp, snap up · **To what, where:** fox, Johnny cake

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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 (fox), 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:pg7439:34:68
# text = “You can, can you?” yelped the fox, and he snapped up the Johnny-cake in his sharp teeth in the twinkling of an eye.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
9	yelped	yelp	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	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	snapped	snap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	Johnny	Johnny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **yelp** | past |  | the fox |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **snap up** | past | fox | the Johnny cake |  |  |  | in the twinkling of a eye; in fox's sharp teeth | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent cake=Patient in tooth=Topic |

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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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