---
title: They all had something that they were willing to venture except poor… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They all had something that they were willing to venture except poor Dick, who had neither money nor goods, and therefore could send nothing. Who acts: servants, poor Dick. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 36

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They all had something that they were willing to venture except poor Dick, who had neither money nor goods, and therefore could send nothing.

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**Who acts:** servants, poor Dick · **What happens:** have, be, venture, send · **To what, where:** something, money, nothing

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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 (servants, poor Dick), 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:pg7439:37:36
# text = They all had something that they were willing to venture except poor Dick, who had neither money nor goods, and therefore could send nothing.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	willing	willing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	venture	venture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	except	except	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Dick	Dick	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc:preconj	_	_
18	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc	_	_
20	goods	goods	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
26	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | servants *= servant* | something |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | willing *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **venture** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | except poor Dick | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past | poor Dick | money nor goods |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Patient |
| 5 | **send** | could | servants *= servant* *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  | therefore *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=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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