---
title: "I have only to tell you, O king," said the hunter, "that I saw the… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "I have only to tell you, O king," said the hunter, "that I saw the fairest creature that ever was born in Erin, and I came to tell you of it." Who acts: hunter. 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 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I have only to tell you, O king," said the hunter, "that I saw the fairest creature that ever was born in Erin, and I came to tell you of it."

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**Who acts:** hunter · **What happens:** tell, say, see, bear, come · **To what, where:** O king, you, that, fairest creature, Erin · **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 (hunter), 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:pg7885:13:57
# text = "I have only to tell you, O king," said the hunter, "that I saw the fairest creature that ever was born in Erin, and I came to tell you of it."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	O	O	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hunter	hunter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	fairest	fair	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	23	amod	_	_
23	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	27	advmod	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	Erin	Erin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	35	iobj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | the hunter *= hunter* | O king | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the hunter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** *in a quote* | past | the hunter *= hunter* | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bear** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the fairest creature |  | Erin | ever |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | past | the hunter *= hunter* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the hunter *= hunter* *not said here* |  | you |  |  | of reason | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

<!-- .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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