---
title: As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse. Who acts: Dame, things, eyed old fellow. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fairy Ointment, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/24/)

<!-- 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/) / [Fairy Ointment](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/) / 24

# English Fairy Tales, Fairy Ointment, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Dame, things, eyed old fellow · **What happens:** buy, want, see, take · **To what, where:** things, Dame

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fairy Ointment. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dame, things, eyed old fellow), 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:pg7439:46:24
# text = As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	buying	buy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
16	squinny	squinny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	eyed	eyed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
27	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** | past · progressive | Dame | the things |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 2 | **want** | past | Dame | the things *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot thing=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | should | the things |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **take** | past · perfect | the eyed old fellow | Dame |  |  |  | on the black horse | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent she=Theme on horse=Destination |

<!-- .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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/25/)
- ↑ back to [Fairy Ointment](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/)