---
title: What piercing, shrill cry is that--the most melodious my ear ever he… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: What piercing, shrill cry is that--the most melodious my ear ever heard, and the shrillest that ever struck my heart of all the cries I ever heard?" " Who acts: melodious ear, I. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What piercing, shrill cry is that--the most melodious my ear ever heard, and the shrillest that ever struck my heart of all the cries I ever heard?" "

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**Who acts:** melodious ear, I · **What happens:** be, strike, hear · **To what, where:** piercing, heart, cries

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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 (melodious ear, I), 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:pg7885:13:91
# text = What piercing, shrill cry is that--the most melodious my ear ever heard, and the shrillest that ever struck my heart of all the cries I ever heard?" "
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	piercing	piercing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	shrill	shrill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	11	advmod	_	_
11	melodious	melodious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	advmod	_	_
15	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	shrillest	shrill	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	obj	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obj	_	_
21	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	22	advmod	_	_
22	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	28	det:predet	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	31	advmod	_	_
31	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | my melodious ear | piercing and shrill cry *not said here* |  |  | ever | hear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **strike** | past |  | my heart of all cries |  |  | ever |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent that=Patient heart=Result |
| 3 | **hear** | participle | I | all cries *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer cry=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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