---
title: Besides, she was so fond of basting, that when she had no meat to ba… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Besides, she was so fond of basting, that when she had no meat to baste, she would baste poor Dick's head and shoulders with a broom, or anything else that happened to fall in her way. Who acts: business, that. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its d
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Besides, she was so fond of basting, that when she had no meat to baste, she would baste poor Dick's head and shoulders with a broom, or anything else that happened to fall in her way.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** business, that · **What happens:** be, have, baste, happen, fall · **To what, where:** meat, poor head, way

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (business, that), 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:pg7439:37:27
# text = Besides, she was so fond of basting, that when she had no meat to baste, she would baste poor Dick's head and shoulders with a broom, or anything else that happened to fall in her way.
1	Besides	besides	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	basting	basting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	baste	baste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	baste	baste	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
22	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
23	Dick	Dick	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	broom	broom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	conj	_	_
34	else	else	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
36	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	xcomp	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | business |  |  |  |  | of basting; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | that | no meat |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Patient |
| 3 | **baste** | would | business | Dick's poor head and shoulders |  |  |  | with a broom | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent head=Patient with broom=Co-Patient |
| 4 | **happen** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | business's way |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in way=Location |

<!-- .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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