---
title: In this distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In this distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them said crossly: “Go to work, for an idle rogue.” Who acts: Dick, one. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 10

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In this distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them said crossly: “Go to work, for an idle rogue.”

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**Who acts:** Dick, one · **What happens:** ask, say, go · **To what, where:** charity, distress, work · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dick, one), 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:pg7439:37:10
# text = In this distress he asked charity of several people, and one of them said crossly: “Go to work, for an idle rogue.”
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	charity	charity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
16	crossly	crossly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	rogue	rogue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Dick | charity of several people |  | this distress |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent charity=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | one of people |  |  |  |  | crossly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  | work |  | for a idle rogue | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to work=Initial\_Location |

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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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