---
title: He had a hovel over his head and a strip of grass that was barely en… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had a hovel over his head and a strip of grass that was barely enough to keep his one cow, Daisy, from starving, and, though she did her best, it was but seldom that Donald got a drink of milk or a roll of butter from Daisy. Who acts: man, cow, hovel. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph 
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'neary, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had a hovel over his head and a strip of grass that was barely enough to keep his one cow, Daisy, from starving, and, though she did her best, it was but seldom that Donald got a drink of milk or a roll of butter from Daisy.

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**Who acts:** man, cow, hovel · **What happens:** have, be, starve, do, roll · **To what, where:** hovel, head, best, butter

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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 (man, cow, hovel), 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:pg7885:10:5
# text = He had a hovel over his head and a strip of grass that was barely enough to keep his one cow, Daisy, from starving, and, though she did her best, it was but seldom that Donald got a drink of milk or a roll of butter from Daisy.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	hovel	hovel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	over	over	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	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	strip	strip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	barely	barely	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl:relcl	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	Daisy	Daisy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
38	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
40	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
41	Donald	Donald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
42	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	drink	drink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	_
47	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
48	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	roll	roll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nmod	_	_
52	from	from	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	Daisy	Daisy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | man | a hovel |  | man's head and a strip of grass |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hovel=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | enough, keep *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **starve** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | past | cow | cow's best |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** | past | hovel |  |  |  |  | get, seldom *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **roll** |  |  | butter from Daisy |  |  |  |  | nom roll «event transitive»: of=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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