---
title: Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she l… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she laughed out, and says she, pointing her finger at it: Who acts: woman. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Tom Tit Tot, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Tom Tit Tot, sentence 118

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Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she laughed out, and says she, pointing her finger at it:

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** back, look, laugh out, say, point · **To what, where:** step, woman, finger · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Tom Tit Tot. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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:pg7439:5:118
# text = Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she laughed out, and says she, pointing her finger at it:
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	backed	back	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	pointing	point	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
27	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **back** | past | woman | a step |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent step=Agent |
| 2 | **look** | past | woman |  |  |  |  | at step | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 3 | **laugh out** | past | woman |  |  |  | then |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | woman *not said here* | woman |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent she=Topic |
| 5 | **point** | gerund | woman *not said here* | woman's finger |  |  |  | at step | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finger=Patient |

<!-- .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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