---
title: Off they went, with a light step and an easy heart, but when they we… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Off they went, with a light step and an easy heart, but when they were near home, who should they see but Donald O'Neary, and all around him the cows were grazing, and the calves were kicking up their heels and butting their heads together. Who acts: scales, home, cows, calves. A sentence of «Celtic
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'neary, sentence 122

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Off they went, with a light step and an easy heart, but when they were near home, who should they see but Donald O'Neary, and all around him the cows were grazing, and the calves were kicking up their heels and butting their heads together.

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**Who acts:** scales, home, cows, calves · **What happens:** go, be, see, graze, kick up, butt · **To what, where:** home, heels, heads

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'neary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (scales, home, cows, calves), 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:pg7885:10:122
# text = Off they went, with a light step and an easy heart, but when they were near home, who should they see but Donald O'Neary, and all around him the cows were grazing, and the calves were kicking up their heels and butting their heads together.
1	Off	off	ADP	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	near	near	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	parataxis	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	Donald	Donald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
27	O'Neary	O'Neary	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
30	all	all	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
31	around	around	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nmod	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	grazing	graze	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	calves	calf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	nsubj	_	_
41	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	kicking	kick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
43	up	up	ADP	RP	_	42	compound:prt	_	_
44	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obj	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	butting	butt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	42	conj	_	_
48	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	_
50	together	together	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | scales *= scale* |  |  |  |  | with a light step and a easy heart | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with step=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **is** | past | scales *= scale* |  |  | home |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | should | home |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **graze** | past · progressive | the cows |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **kick up** | past · progressive | the calves | scales's heels |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent heel=Patient |
| 6 | **butt** | gerund | the calves *not said here* | scales's heads |  |  |  | together *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=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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