---
title: Thus, a drop of honey falls on the ground; a fly goes after it, a bi… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus, a drop of honey falls on the ground; a fly goes after it, a bird snaps at the fly, a dog goes for the bird, another dog goes for the first, the masters of the two dogs--who happen to be kings--quarrel and go to war, whole provinces are devastated, and all for a drop of honey! Who acts: drop, f
---

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# English Fairy Tales, XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse., sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thus, a drop of honey falls on the ground; a fly goes after it, a bird snaps at the fly, a dog goes for the bird, another dog goes for the first, the masters of the two dogs--who happen to be kings--quarrel and go to war, whole provinces are devastated, and all for a drop of honey!

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**Who acts:** drop, fly, bird, dog, two dogs, kings · **What happens:** fall, go, snap, happen, be, devastate · **To what, where:** ground, masters, kings, war, whole provinces

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XVI. Tatty Mouse and Tatty Mouse.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drop, fly, bird, dog), 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:pg7439:66:32
# text = Thus, a drop of honey falls on the ground; a fly goes after it, a bird snaps at the fly, a dog goes for the bird, another dog goes for the first, the masters of the two dogs--who happen to be kings--quarrel and go to war, whole provinces are devastated, and all for a drop of honey!
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	falls	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	after	after	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	snaps	snap	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	det	_	_
33	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	nummod	_	_
44	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
47	happen	happen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	44	acl:relcl	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
49	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	cop	_	_
50	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	quarrel	quarrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	conj	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	conj	_	_
55	to	to	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
58	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	provinces	province	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	61	nsubj:pass	_	_
60	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	61	aux:pass	_	_
61	devastated	devastate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	50	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	64	punct	_	_
63	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	64	cc	_	_
64	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	conj	_	_
65	for	for	ADP	IN	_	67	case	_	_
66	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	67	det	_	_
67	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	64	nmod	_	_
68	of	of	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
69	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	67	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
70	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | present | a drop of honey |  |  | the ground |  | thus *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on ground=Location |
| 2 | **go** | present | a fly |  |  |  | after drop |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **snap** | present | a bird |  |  |  |  | at the fly | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at fly=Location |
| 4 | **go** | present | a dog |  |  |  |  | for the bird | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for bird=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **go** | present | another dog | the masters of the two dogs |  |  |  | for the first | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for first=Beneficiary |
| 6 | **happen** | present | the two dogs |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | kings and quarrel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **go** | infinitive |  |  |  | war |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to war=Initial\_Location |
| 9 | **devastate** | present · passive | kings and quarrel *not said here* | whole provinces |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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