--- title: Then he told it to his son, and his son told it to his son, and that… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: Then he told it to his son, and his son told it to his son, and that son’s great-great-grandson’s son told it to his son’s son, and he told it to my father, and my father told it to me.” Who acts: Cairide, son, father. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/72/20/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Irish Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/) / [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/72/) / 20 # Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 20 Then he told it to his son, and his son told it to his son, and that son’s great-great-grandson’s son told it to his son’s son, and he told it to my father, and my father told it to me.” **Who acts:** Cairide, son, father · **What happens:** tell · **To what, where:** Faery, son, father, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Cairide, son, father), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg2892:72:20 # text = Then he told it to his son, and his son told it to his son, and that son’s great-great-grandson’s son told it to his son’s son, and he told it to my father, and my father told it to me.” 1 Then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 3 advmod _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 obj _ _ 5 to to ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 6 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 10 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nsubj _ _ 12 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 13 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 obj _ _ 14 to to ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 15 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 18 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 19 that that DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 20 det _ _ 20 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 26 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 21 ’s 's PART POS _ 20 case _ _ 22 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 23 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 22 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 24 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 25 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 24 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 26 grandson grandson NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 27 ’s 's PART POS _ 26 case _ _ 28 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 29 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 30 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 obj _ _ 31 to to ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 32 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 33 nmod:poss _ _ 33 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 34 ’s 's PART POS _ 33 case _ _ 35 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 38 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 40 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 obj _ _ 41 to to ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 42 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 43 nmod:poss _ _ 43 father father NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 44 , , PUNCT , _ 48 punct _ _ 45 and and CCONJ CC _ 48 cc _ _ 46 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 47 nmod:poss _ _ 47 father father NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 nsubj _ _ 48 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 49 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 48 obj _ _ 50 to to ADP IN _ 51 case _ _ 51 me I PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 48 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 52 . . PUNCT . _ 48 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 53 ” " PUNCT '' _ 48 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Cairide | Faery | Cairide's son | | then | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to son=Recipient | | 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Cairide's son | Faery | Cairide's son | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to son=Recipient | | 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | that son's great great grandson's son | Faery | Cairide's son's son | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to son=Recipient | | 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Cairide | Faery | my father | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to father=Recipient | | 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | my father | Faery | me | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to i=Recipient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/72/19/) - next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/72/21/) - ↑ back to [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/72/)