---
title: Then he consulted his works and his familiar, and told them: “The La… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he consulted his works and his familiar, and told them: “The Laidly Worm is really the Princess Margaret and it is hunger that drives her forth to do such deeds. Who acts: Spindleston, Laidly Worm, warlock, hunger. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Laidly Worm of Spindle
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, sentence 20

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Then he consulted his works and his familiar, and told them: “The Laidly Worm is really the Princess Margaret and it is hunger that drives her forth to do such deeds.

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**Who acts:** Spindleston, Laidly Worm, warlock, hunger · **What happens:** consult, tell, be, drive, do, work · **To what, where:** works, Princess Margaret, hunger, Worm, such deeds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Spindleston, Laidly Worm, warlock, hunger), 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:pg7439:39:20
# text = Then he consulted his works and his familiar, and told them: “The Laidly Worm is really the Princess Margaret and it is hunger that drives her forth to do such deeds.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	consulted	consult	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	works	work	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	familiar	familiar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Laidly	Laidly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	Worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	really	really	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	Margaret	Margaret	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	hunger	hunger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	drives	drive	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
33	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	deeds	deed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **consult** | past | Spindleston | Spindleston's works |  |  | then |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Spindleston *not said here* |  | works *= work* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the Laidly Worm | the Princess Margaret and hunger |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | warlock | hunger |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **drive** *in a quote* | present | hunger | Worm |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 6 | **do** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | hunger *not said here* | such deeds |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deed=Eventuality |
| 7 | **work** |  | Spindleston |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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