---
title: He would have excused himself from coming into the counting-house, s… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He would have excused himself from coming into the counting-house, saying, “The room is swept, and my shoes are dirty and full of hob-nails.” Who acts: King, shoes. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Whittington and His Cat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Whittington and His Cat, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He would have excused himself from coming into the counting-house, saying, “The room is swept, and my shoes are dirty and full of hob-nails.”

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**Who acts:** King, shoes · **What happens:** excuse, come, say, sweep, be · **To what, where:** King, counting house, room · **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 (King, shoes), 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:pg7439:37:88
# text = He would have excused himself from coming into the counting-house, saying, “The room is swept, and my shoes are dirty and full of hob-nails.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	excused	excuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	counting	counting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	swept	sweep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
25	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	dirty	dirty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	hob	hob	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **excuse** | would · perfect | King | King |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | gerund | King *not said here* |  |  | the counting house |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into house=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **sweep** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | the room |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | my shoes |  |  |  |  | dirty *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** *in a quote* |  | my shoes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of hob nails | tree rules |

<!-- .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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