---
title: As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was very badly off; he g… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was very badly off; he got but little for his dinner, and sometimes nothing at all for his breakfast; for the people who lived in the village were very poor indeed, and could not spare him much more than the parings of potatoes, and now and then a hard cru
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 2

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As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was very badly off; he got but little for his dinner, and sometimes nothing at all for his breakfast; for the people who lived in the village were very poor indeed, and could not spare him much more than the parings of potatoes, and now and then a hard crust of bread.

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**Who acts:** Dick, people · **What happens:** not be, work, be, get, live, not spare · **To what, where:** nothing, village, Dick

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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, people), 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:pg7439:37:2
# text = As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was very badly off; he got but little for his dinner, and sometimes nothing at all for his breakfast; for the people who lived in the village were very poor indeed, and could not spare him much more than the parings of potatoes, and now and then a hard crust of bread.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Dick	Dick	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
15	off	off	ADV	RB	_	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	27	advmod	_	_
27	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	obl	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	nmod	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	44	punct	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nsubj	_	_
37	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	38	nsubj	_	_
38	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	acl:relcl	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
43	very	very	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
45	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
48	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
49	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	50	advmod	_	_
50	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	conj	_	_
51	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obj	_	_
52	much	much	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	50	advmod	_	_
54	than	than	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	parings	paring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obl	_	_
57	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	potatoes	potato	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	56	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	66	punct	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	66	cc	_	_
61	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	66	advmod	_	_
62	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	66	cc	_	_
63	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	66	advmod	_	_
64	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
65	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	66	amod	_	_
66	crust	crust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
67	of	of	ADP	IN	_	68	case	_	_
68	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
69	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | as poor Dick; enough, old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **work** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | Dick |  |  |  |  | badly, off *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | past | Dick | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **live** | past | the people |  |  | the village |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in village=Location |
| 6 | **is** | past | the people |  |  |  |  | indeed, poor *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **not** **spare** | could | the people *not said here* | Dick |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent he=Asset |

<!-- .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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