---
title: At Hilton Hall, long years ago, there lived a Brownie that was the c… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At Hilton Hall, long years ago, there lived a Brownie that was the contrariest Brownie you ever knew. Who acts: you. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Cauld Lad of Hilton, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Cauld Lad of Hilton, sentence 1

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At Hilton Hall, long years ago, there lived a Brownie that was the contrariest Brownie you ever knew.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** live, be, know · **To what, where:** Brownie, Hilton Hall, contrariest Brownie

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Cauld Lad of Hilton. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), 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:pg7439:44:1
# text = At Hilton Hall, long years ago, there lived a Brownie that was the contrariest Brownie you ever knew.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	Hilton	Hilton	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Hall	Hall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Brownie	brownie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	contrariest	contrary	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	17	amod	_	_
17	Brownie	Brownie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	advcl	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	20	advmod	_	_
20	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a Brownie |  | Hilton Hall; there |  | ago *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme brownie=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | you *not said here* | the contrariest Brownie |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | past | you | a Brownie |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |

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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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