---
title: He would have scolded the jackdaw, and tried to out-whistle the thro… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He would have scolded the jackdaw, and tried to out-whistle the throstle, and wondered why his pipe got tired when the blackbird’s didn’t. Who acts: lack, pipe, blackbird. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 34

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He would have scolded the jackdaw, and tried to out-whistle the throstle, and wondered why his pipe got tired when the blackbird’s didn’t.

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**Who acts:** lack, pipe, blackbird · **What happens:** scold, try, wonder, get, not do · **To what, where:** jackdaw, throstle

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lack, pipe, blackbird), 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:pg2892:14:34
# text = He would have scolded the jackdaw, and tried to out-whistle the throstle, and wondered why his pipe got tired when the blackbird’s didn’t.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	scolded	scold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	jackdaw	jackdaw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	whistle	whistle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	throstle	throstle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
19	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	blackbird	blackbird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scold** | would · perfect | lack | the jackdaw |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jackdaw=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | past | lack *not said here* | the throstle |  |  |  | to whistle | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent throstle=Eventuality |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | lack *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **get** | past | lack's pipe |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **do** | past | the blackbird |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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:** «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (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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