--- title: When the harpers heard this, they drew their swords and rushed at hi… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: When the harpers heard this, they drew their swords and rushed at him, but instead of striking him, their blows fell on each other, and soon not a man but was cracking his neighbour's skull and getting his own cracked in turn. Who acts: harpers, sounds, blows, own. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/20/136/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / [The Story-teller At Fault](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/20/) / 136 # Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story-teller At Fault, sentence 136 When the harpers heard this, they drew their swords and rushed at him, but instead of striking him, their blows fell on each other, and soon not a man but was cracking his neighbour's skull and getting his own cracked in turn. **Who acts:** harpers, sounds, blows, own · **What happens:** hear, draw, rush, strike, fall, crack · **To what, where:** this, swords, sword, man, each, skull This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story-teller At Fault. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (harpers, sounds, blows, own), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7885:20:136 # text = When the harpers heard this, they drew their swords and rushed at him, but instead of striking him, their blows fell on each other, and soon not a man but was cracking his neighbour's skull and getting his own cracked in turn. 1 When when ADV WRB PronType=Int 4 advmod _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 harpers harper NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 nsubj _ _ 4 heard hear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 advcl _ _ 5 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 4 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 7 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 8 drew draw VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 10 swords sword NOUN NNS Number=Plur 8 obj _ _ 11 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 12 rushed rush VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 13 at at ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 14 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 19 punct _ _ 16 but but CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 17 instead instead ADV RB ExtPos=SCONJ 19 mark _ _ 18 of of ADP IN _ 17 fixed _ _ 19 striking strike VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 8 advcl _ _ 20 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 22 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 23 nmod:poss _ _ 23 blows blow NOUN NNS Number=Plur 24 nsubj _ _ 24 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 25 on on ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 26 each each DET DT ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp 24 obl _ _ 27 other other ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 fixed _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 30 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 33 advmod _ _ 31 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 33 advmod _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obl _ _ 34 but but CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 35 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 aux _ _ 36 cracking crack VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 24 conj _ _ 37 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 38 nmod:poss _ _ 38 neighbour neighbour NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 39 's 's PART POS _ 38 case _ _ 40 skull skull NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obj _ _ 41 and and CCONJ CC _ 42 cc _ _ 42 getting get VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 36 conj _ _ 43 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 44 nmod:poss _ _ 44 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 obj _ _ 45 cracked crack VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 42 xcomp _ _ 46 in in ADP IN _ 47 case _ _ 47 turn turn NOUN NN Number=Sing 45 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 48 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **hear** | past | the harpers | this | | | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus | | 2 | **draw** | past | sounds *= sound* | sounds's swords | | | | | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme | | 3 | **rush** | past | sounds *= sound* *not said here* | | | | | at sword | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at he=Trajectory | | 4 | **strike** | gerund | sounds *= sound* *not said here* | sword | | | | | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Instrument | | 5 | **fall** | past | sounds's blows | a man | | each | | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on each=Location | | 6 | **crack** | past · progressive | sounds's blows *not said here* | man's neighbour's skull | | | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location skull=Theme | | 7 | **get** | gerund | sounds's blows *not said here* | man's own | | | | | tree rules | | 8 | **crack** | participle | man's own *not said here* | | | turn | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in turn=Location | | 9 | **blow** | | sounds *= sound* | | | | | | nom blow «act intransitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/20/135/) - next →: [sentence 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/20/137/) - ↑ back to [The Story-teller At Fault](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/20/)