---
title: So Tom stole on, going on the tops of his toes to try if he could ge… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So Tom stole on, going on the tops of his toes to try if he could get a sight of what was making the noise, to see if he was right in his guess. Who acts: Tom, sight. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Field of Boliauns, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Field of Boliauns, sentence 3

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So Tom stole on, going on the tops of his toes to try if he could get a sight of what was making the noise, to see if he was right in his guess.

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**Who acts:** Tom, sight · **What happens:** steal, go, try, get, make, see · **To what, where:** tops, sight, noise, guess

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Field of Boliauns. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, sight), 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:pg7885:7:3
# text = So Tom stole on, going on the tops of his toes to try if he could get a sight of what was making the noise, to see if he was right in his guess.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tops	top	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	toes	toe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	acl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	ccomp	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	guess	guess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** | past | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | gerund | Tom *not said here* |  |  | the tops of Tom's toes |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **try** | to-infinitive | Tom *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **get** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | Tom | a sight |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sight=Stimulus |
| 5 | **make** | past · progressive | a sight | the noise |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material noise=Product |
| 6 | **see** | to-infinitive | Tom *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Tom |  |  | Tom's guess |  | right *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **guess** |  | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | nom guess «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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