---
title: While he was thinking what he should do, the Bells of Bow Church, wh… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was thinking what he should do, the Bells of Bow Church, which at that time were only six, began to ring, and their sound seemed to say to him: Who acts: Dick, Bow Church, sound. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While he was thinking what he should do, the Bells of Bow Church, which at that time were only six, began to ring, and their sound seemed to say to him:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dick, Bow Church, sound · **What happens:** think, do, be, begin, ring, seem · **To what, where:** six, Dick · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Dick, Bow Church, sound), 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:pg7439:37:47
# text = While he was thinking what he should do, the Bells of Bow Church, which at that time were only six, began to ring, and their sound seemed to say to him:
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Bells	Bell	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	Bow	Bow	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	Church	Church	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
24	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	ring	ring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past · progressive | Dick |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | should | Dick |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is a** | past | Bow Church | six |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **begin** | past | Bow Church |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **ring** | to-infinitive | Bow Church *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **seem** | past | bells's sound |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | bells's sound *not said here* |  | Dick |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |

<!-- .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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