---
title: They blew out the candles, threw down the table, and skelped out at… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They blew out the candles, threw down the table, and skelped out at the back door as if they were in earnest, and never drew rein till they were in the very heart of the wood. Who acts: robbers. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Comrades, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They blew out the candles, threw down the table, and skelped out at the back door as if they were in earnest, and never drew rein till they were in the very heart of the wood.

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**Who acts:** robbers · **What happens:** blow out, throw down, skelp out, be, not draw · **To what, where:** candles, table, back door, rein, heart

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (robbers), 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:pg7885:18:62
# text = They blew out the candles, threw down the table, and skelped out at the back door as if they were in earnest, and never drew rein till they were in the very heart of the wood.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	candles	candle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	down	down	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	skelped	skelp	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
29	rein	rein	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
30	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	very	very	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	advcl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **blow out** | past | robbers *= robber* | the candles |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent candle=Patient |
| 2 | **throw down** | past | robbers *= robber* *not said here* | the table |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent table=Theme |
| 3 | **skelp out** | past | robbers *= robber* *not said here* |  |  | the back door |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  | earn *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **draw** | past |  | rein |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rein=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past | robbers *= robber* |  |  | the heart |  | of the wood | tree rules |

<!-- .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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