---
title: Well, as I was a-saying, the Brownie at Hilton Hall would play at mi… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, as I was a-saying, the Brownie at Hilton Hall would play at mischief, but if the servants laid out for it a bowl of cream, or a knuckle cake spread with honey, it would clear away things for them, and make everything tidy in the kitchen. Who acts: I, Brownie, servants, knuckle cake. A sentence
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/44/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / [The Cauld Lad of Hilton](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/44/) / 11

# English Fairy Tales, The Cauld Lad of Hilton, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Well, as I was a-saying, the Brownie at Hilton Hall would play at mischief, but if the servants laid out for it a bowl of cream, or a knuckle cake spread with honey, it would clear away things for them, and make everything tidy in the kitchen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Brownie, servants, knuckle cake, cake · **What happens:** be, play, lay out, spread, clear away, make · **To what, where:** mischief, bowl, things, everything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, Brownie, servants, knuckle cake), 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:pg7439:44:11
# text = Well, as I was a-saying, the Brownie at Hilton Hall would play at mischief, but if the servants laid out for it a bowl of cream, or a knuckle cake spread with honey, it would clear away things for them, and make everything tidy in the kitchen.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Brownie	Brownie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	Hilton	Hilton	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	Hall	Hall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	mischief	mischief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
24	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
25	out	out	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	bowl	bowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	cream	cream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	knuckle	knuckle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
37	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
42	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	clear	clear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
44	away	away	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
45	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obj	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
51	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	50	obj	_	_
52	tidy	tidy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	xcomp	_	_
53	in	in	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  | say *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **play** | would | the Brownie at Hilton Hall |  |  | mischief |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lay out** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | the servants | a bowl of cream |  |  |  | for mischief | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent bowl=Result for it=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **spread** | participle | a knuckle cake |  |  |  |  | with honey | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **clear away** | would | cake | things |  |  |  | for servants *= servant*; away *property* | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent thing=Product for they=Beneficiary |
| 6 | **make** | infinitive |  | everything |  |  |  | tidy *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset everything=Product |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/44/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/44/12/)
- ↑ back to [The Cauld Lad of Hilton](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/44/)