---
title: “Don’t ask riddles of a man that’s eating blackberries,” the Carl re… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Don’t ask riddles of a man that’s eating blackberries,” the Carl rebuked him. Who acts: you, riddles, Carl, man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter V, sentence 20

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“Don’t ask riddles of a man that’s eating blackberries,” the Carl rebuked him.

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**Who acts:** you, riddles, Carl, man · **What happens:** not ask, eat, rebuke, riddle · **To what, where:** riddles, blackberries, Cael · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, riddles, Carl, man), 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:pg2892:52:20
# text = “Don’t ask riddles of a man that’s eating blackberries,” the Carl rebuked him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	riddles	riddle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	blackberries	blackberry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Carl	Carl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	rebuked	rebuke	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | imperative · do-support | you *not said here* | riddles of a man |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent riddle=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | gerund | riddles of a man *not said here* | blackberries |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blackberry=Patient |
| 3 | **rebuke** | past | the Carl | Cael |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **riddle** *in a quote* |  | a man |  |  |  |  |  | nom riddle «communication intransitive»: of=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:** «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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