---
title: "What like are these men when seen, if we were to see them?" said De… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "What like are these men when seen, if we were to see them?" said Deirdre. Who acts: we, Deirdre. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, sentence 48

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"What like are these men when seen, if we were to see them?" said Deirdre.

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**Who acts:** we, Deirdre · **What happens:** be, see, say · **To what, where:** men, Deirdre · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, Deirdre), 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:pg7885:13:48
# text = "What like are these men when seen, if we were to see them?" said Deirdre.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
3	like	like	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
8	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	Deirdre	Deirdre	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | this men |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | we | Deirdre |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Deirdre |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

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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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