---
title: "Come, be off, you lazy strollers!" says he, "while a cat 'ud be lic… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Come, be off, you lazy strollers!" says he, "while a cat 'ud be licking her ear, or I'll let the dogs at you." Who acts: you, ud, I. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Comrades, sentence 97

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Come, be off, you lazy strollers!" says he, "while a cat 'ud be licking her ear, or I'll let the dogs at you."

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**Who acts:** you, ud, I · **What happens:** come off, be, stroller, say, lick, let · **To what, where:** Jack, ear, dogs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, ud, I), 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:pg7885:18:97
# text = "Come, be off, you lazy strollers!" says he, "while a cat 'ud be licking her ear, or I'll let the dogs at you."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	off	off	ADV	RB	_	2	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	lazy	lazy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	strollers	stroller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
12	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	'	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	ud	ud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	licking	lick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come off** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | off *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **stroller** *in a quote* |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: express* | present |  | Jack |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **lick** *in a quote* | infinitive · progressive | a cat's ud | ud's ear |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent ear=Source |
| 6 | **let** *in a quote* | future | I | the dogs |  |  |  | at you | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent dog=Theme at you=Asset |

<!-- .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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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