---
title: “Well then, mother dear, turn the twenty-four dancers and pipers int… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well then, mother dear, turn the twenty-four dancers and pipers into twenty-four grey herons, and let my seven sons become seven white swans, and let me be a goshawk and their leader.” Who acts: mother, seven sons, goshawk. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Earl Mar's Daughter, 
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Earl Mar's Daughter, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well then, mother dear, turn the twenty-four dancers and pipers into twenty-four grey herons, and let my seven sons become seven white swans, and let me be a goshawk and their leader.”

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**Who acts:** mother, seven sons, goshawk · **What happens:** turn, let, become, be · **To what, where:** four dancers, seven white swans, queen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Earl Mar's Daughter. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, seven sons, goshawk), 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:pg7439:35:34
# text = “Well then, mother dear, turn the twenty-four dancers and pipers into twenty-four grey herons, and let my seven sons become seven white swans, and let me be a goshawk and their leader.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	dancers	dancer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	pipers	piper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
17	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
20	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	herons	heron	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
29	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
30	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
35	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	goshawk	goshawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	leader	leader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** *in a quote* | infinitive | mother | the four dancers and pipers |  |  | then | into four grey herons *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent dancer=Theme into heron=Result |
| 2 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **become** *in a quote* | present | my seven sons | seven white swans |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive | mother *not said here* | the queen *= queen* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* | infinitive | a goshawk and goshawk's leader |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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