---
title: Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any earthly… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any earthly maiden could be unless he should strike her three times without cause. Who acts: Myddvai, shepherd. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Shepherd of Myddvai, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shepherd of Myddvai, sentence 16

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Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any earthly maiden could be unless he should strike her three times without cause.

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**Who acts:** Myddvai, shepherd · **What happens:** tell, be, strike · **To what, where:** shepherd, Myddvai · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Shepherd of Myddvai. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Myddvai, shepherd), 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:pg7885:11:16
# text = Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any earthly maiden could be unless he should strike her three times without cause.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|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	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
16	earthly	earthly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
19	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
20	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
27	without	without	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Myddvai |  | shepherd |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | would | Myddvai |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | infinitive | Myddvai *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **strike** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | shepherd | Myddvai |  |  | time | without cause | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent she=Instrument |

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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:** «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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