---
title: "What's the matter, friends?" said he, as he saw them tearing along,… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "What's the matter, friends?" said he, as he saw them tearing along, their hats knocked in, and their coats torn off, and their faces black and blue. " Who acts: Donald, dogs, coats. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'neary, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'neary, sentence 73

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"What's the matter, friends?" said he, as he saw them tearing along, their hats knocked in, and their coats torn off, and their faces black and blue. "

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**Who acts:** Donald, dogs, coats · **What happens:** be, say, see, tear along, knock in, tear off · **To what, where:** matter, dogs, hats · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Donald, dogs, coats), 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:pg7885:10:73
# text = "What's the matter, friends?" said he, as he saw them tearing along, their hats knocked in, and their coats torn off, and their faces black and blue. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	tearing	tear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	xcomp	_	_
18	along	along	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	hats	hat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
22	knocked	knock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	coats	coat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
29	off	off	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	parataxis	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
38	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Donald |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | past | Donald | dogs *= dog* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tear along** | gerund | dogs *= dog* *not said here* | dogs's hats |  |  |  | along *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **knock in** | participle |  | dogs's hats *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **tear off** | participle | dogs's coats |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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