---
title: “Mostly, my dear,” said Mrs. Miacca, “if little boys are bad enough,… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Mostly, my dear,” said Mrs. Miacca, “if little boys are bad enough, and get in his way.” Who acts: Mrs., little boys. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Mr. Miacca, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Mr. Miacca, sentence 14

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“Mostly, my dear,” said Mrs. Miacca, “if little boys are bad enough, and get in his way.”

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**Who acts:** Mrs., little boys · **What happens:** say, be, get · **To what, where:** way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Mr. Miacca. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mrs., little boys), 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:pg7439:36:14
# text = “Mostly, my dear,” said Mrs. Miacca, “if little boys are bad enough, and get in his way.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Mostly	mostly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Mrs.	Mrs.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
10	Miacca	Miacca	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	_
18	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mrs. |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | little boys |  |  |  |  | bad, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **get** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  | Mrs.'s way |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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