---
title: He stayed away a whole year, and then came back one day, dragging on… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He stayed away a whole year, and then came back one day, dragging one foot after the other, and a poor wizened face on him, and he as cross as two sticks. Who acts: eldest. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Master, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Master, sentence 4

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He stayed away a whole year, and then came back one day, dragging one foot after the other, and a poor wizened face on him, and he as cross as two sticks.

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**Who acts:** eldest · **What happens:** stay away, come back, drag, wizen · **To what, where:** one foot

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Master. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eldest), 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:pg7885:24:4
# text = He stayed away a whole year, and then came back one day, dragging one foot after the other, and a poor wizened face on him, and he as cross as two sticks.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	away	away	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	back	back	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	after	after	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	wizened	wizen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	amod	_	_
26	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	as	as	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	cross	cross	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	sticks	stick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay away** | past | eldest *= eld* |  |  |  | year | away *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come back** | past | eldest *= eld* *not said here* |  |  |  | then; day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **drag** | gerund | eldest *= eld* *not said here* | one foot |  |  | after the other |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Theme |
| 4 | **wizen** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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:** «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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