---
title: “Dear, dear! what a dreadful thing it would be!” said the mother, an… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Dear, dear! what a dreadful thing it would be!” said the mother, and she sat her down aside of the daughter and started a-crying too. Who acts: mother. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Three Sillies, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Three Sillies, sentence 11

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“Dear, dear! what a dreadful thing it would be!” said the mother, and she sat her down aside of the daughter and started a-crying too.

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**Who acts:** mother · **What happens:** say, sit down, start, cry · **To what, where:** daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Three Sillies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother), 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:pg7439:7:11
# text = “Dear, dear! what a dreadful thing it would be!” said the mother, and she sat her down aside of the daughter and started a-crying too.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	conj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
24	aside	aside	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	xcomp	_	_
33	too	too	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **sit down** | past | mother | daughter |  |  |  | of the daughter; aside *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **start** | past | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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