---
title: “That's easy enough,” said the henwife, and told them that a Brownie… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “That's easy enough,” said the henwife, and told them that a Brownie that's paid for its service, in aught that's not perishable, goes away at once. Who acts: That, henwife. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Cauld Lad of Hilton, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Cauld Lad of Hilton, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“That's easy enough,” said the henwife, and told them that a Brownie that's paid for its service, in aught that's not perishable, goes away at once.

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**Who acts:** That, henwife · **What happens:** be, say, tell, pay, not be, go away · **To what, where:** man, Brownie, aught · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (That, henwife), 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:pg7439:44:17
# text = “That's easy enough,” said the henwife, and told them that a Brownie that's paid for its service, in aught that's not perishable, goes away at once.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
5	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	henwife	henwife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Brownie	Brownie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	paid	pay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	ccomp	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	aught	aught	PRON	NN	PronType=Ind	30	obl	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	perishable	perishable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
33	away	away	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | That |  |  |  |  | easy, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the henwife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the henwife *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **pay** | present · passive |  | a Brownie |  |  |  | for henwife's service | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Asset for service=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **is** | present | that |  |  | aught |  | perishable *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **go away** | present | that *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at once=Location |
| 7 | **service** |  | henwife |  |  |  |  |  | nom service «act transitive»: 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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