---
title: The master of the house asked him what sort was he, and he said: "A… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The master of the house asked him what sort was he, and he said: "A young man looking for hire." Who acts: master, sort, king, young man. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, sentence 10

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The master of the house asked him what sort was he, and he said: "A young man looking for hire."

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**Who acts:** master, sort, king, young man · **What happens:** ask, be, say, look · **To what, where:** king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (master, sort, king, young man), 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:pg7885:19:10
# text = The master of the house asked him what sort was he, and he said: "A young man looking for hire."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	ccomp	_	_
9	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
21	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	hire	hire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the master of the house |  | king |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | sort | king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **look** *in a quote* | gerund | a young man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for hire | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for hire=Theme |

<!-- .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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