---
title: I took the heads off them all when they came back without the tiding… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I took the heads off them all when they came back without the tidings for which they went, and I'm greatly in dread that your head'll be on the twelfth spike, for I'll do the same to you that I did to the eleven kings' sons unless you tell what put a stop to the laughing of the Gruagach." Who acts: 
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I took the heads off them all when they came back without the tidings for which they went, and I'm greatly in dread that your head'll be on the twelfth spike, for I'll do the same to you that I did to the eleven kings' sons unless you tell what put a stop to the laughing of the Gruagach."

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**Who acts:** I, heads, head, you · **What happens:** take, come back, go, be, do, tell · **To what, where:** heads, dread, twelfth spike, same, you, stop · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, heads, head, you), 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:pg7885:19:6
# text = I took the heads off them all when they came back without the tidings for which they went, and I'm greatly in dread that your head'll be on the twelfth spike, for I'll do the same to you that I did to the eleven kings' sons unless you tell what put a stop to the laughing of the Gruagach."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	nmod:unmarked	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
11	back	back	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	without	without	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tidings	tiding	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	dread	dread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	twelfth	twelfth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	spike	spike	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
36	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	obj	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	39	obl	_	_
44	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
45	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	advcl	_	_
47	to	to	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	50	nummod	_	_
50	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	52	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	'	's	PART	POS	_	50	case	_	_
52	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	_
53	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
54	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
55	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	advcl	_	_
56	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	57	nsubj	_	_
57	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	55	ccomp	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	stop	stop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obj	_	_
60	to	to	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
62	laughing	laughing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obl	_	_
63	of	of	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	Gruagach	Gruagach	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	62	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | I | the heads |  |  |  | off heads *= head* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent head=Theme off they=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **come back** | past | heads *= head* |  |  |  |  | without the tidings | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | past | heads *= head* |  |  |  |  | for the tidings | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for which=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **is** | present | I |  |  | dread |  | greatly *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | future | your head |  |  | the twelfth spike |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | future | I | the same | you |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent same=Eventuality |
| 7 | **do** | past | I |  |  |  |  | to the eleven kings's sons | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 9 | **put** | past |  | a stop |  |  |  | to the laughing of the Gruagach | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent stop=Goal |

<!-- .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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