---
title: We had to fast that night; and when the man and his twelve daughters… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: We had to fast that night; and when the man and his twelve daughters ate the flesh of the stork, they hurled the bare bones in the faces of my sons and myself. Who acts: We, man, pikes. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, with its dependenc
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We had to fast that night; and when the man and his twelve daughters ate the flesh of the stork, they hurled the bare bones in the faces of my sons and myself.

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**Who acts:** We, man, pikes · **What happens:** have, fast, eat, hurl · **To what, where:** flesh, bare bones, faces

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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 (We, man, pikes), 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:pg7885:19:54
# text = We had to fast that night; and when the man and his twelve daughters ate the flesh of the stork, they hurled the bare bones in the faces of my sons and myself.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	fast	fast	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
16	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	hurled	hurl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | We |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fast** | to-infinitive | We *not said here* |  |  |  | night |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **eat** | past | the man and man's twelve daughters | the flesh of the stork |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=Patient |
| 4 | **hurl** | past | pikes *= pike* | the bare bones |  | the faces of my sons |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent bone=Theme in face=Destination |

<!-- .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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