---
title: He took the sieve in his hand and went over to the river, but as oft… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He took the sieve in his hand and went over to the river, but as often as ever he would stoop and fill it with water, the moment he raised it the water would run out of it again, and sure, if he had been there from that day till this, he never could have filled it. Who acts: hound, moment. A sentenc
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Munachar and Manachar, sentence 58

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He took the sieve in his hand and went over to the river, but as often as ever he would stoop and fill it with water, the moment he raised it the water would run out of it again, and sure, if he had been there from that day till this, he never could have filled it.

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**Who acts:** hound, moment · **What happens:** take, go over, stoop, fill, raise, run · **To what, where:** sieve, hand

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Munachar and Manachar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hound, moment), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7885:14:58
# text = He took the sieve in his hand and went over to the river, but as often as ever he would stoop and fill it with water, the moment he raised it the water would run out of it again, and sure, if he had been there from that day till this, he never could have filled it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sieve	sieve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	over	over	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
16	as	as	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	often	often	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	stoop	stoop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
38	out	out	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obl	_	_
41	again	again	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
46	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
47	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
48	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
49	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	50	cop	_	_
50	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	44	ccomp	_	_
51	from	from	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	53	det	_	_
53	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
54	till	till	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
55	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	53	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	61	punct	_	_
57	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
58	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	61	advmod	_	_
59	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	61	aux	_	_
60	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	61	aux	_	_
61	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	50	conj	_	_
62	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	61	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | hound | the sieve |  | hound's hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent sieve=Value in hand=Location |
| 2 | **go over** | past | hound *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the river; over *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stoop** | would | hound |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fill** | infinitive | hound *not said here* | sieve |  |  |  | with water | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with water=Instrument |
| 5 | **raise** | past | hound | sieve |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent it=Theme water=Destination |
| 6 | **run** | would | the moment |  |  | sieve | again |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out it=Trajectory |
| 7 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | hound |  |  |  | day | there *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **not** **fill** | could · perfect | hound | sieve |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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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