---
title: He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened him by the three s… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened him by the three smalls, and tied him so that his little toes were whispering to his ears. Who acts: cowboy, little toes. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened him by the three smalls, and tied him so that his little toes were whispering to his ears.

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**Who acts:** cowboy, little toes · **What happens:** take down, catch, fasten, tie, whisper · **To what, where:** these, Gruagach, cowboy, ears

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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 (cowboy, little toes), 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:pg7885:19:39
# text = He took these down, caught the Gruagach, fastened him by the three smalls, and tied him so that his little toes were whispering to his ears.
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	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	obj	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Gruagach	Gruagach	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	smalls	small	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	26	mark	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	toes	toe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	whispering	whisper	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take down** | past | cowboy | these |  |  |  | down *property* | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Theme |
| 2 | **catch** | past | cowboy *not said here* | the Gruagach |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gruagach=Theme |
| 3 | **fasten** | past | cowboy *not said here* | cowboy |  |  |  | by the three smalls | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **tie** | past | cowboy *not said here* | cowboy |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 5 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | cowboy's little toes |  | cowboy's ears |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to ear=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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