---
title: They did as they were told, but what happened was that they found th… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: They did as they were told, but what happened was that they found the king's chief harper hanging where the lank grey beggarman should have been. Who acts: Twas, chief harper, lank grey beggarman. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story-teller At Fault, with its dependency tre
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story-teller At Fault, sentence 149

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They did as they were told, but what happened was that they found the king's chief harper hanging where the lank grey beggarman should have been.

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**Who acts:** Twas, chief harper, lank grey beggarman · **What happens:** do, tell, happen, be, find, hang · **To what, where:** Twas, chief harper · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Twas, chief harper, lank grey beggarman), 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:pg7885:20:149
# text = They did as they were told, but what happened was that they found the king's chief harper hanging where the lank grey beggarman should have been.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj	_	_
10	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	chief	chief	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	harper	harper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
20	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	28	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	lank	lank	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	beggarman	beggarman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
28	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | Twas *= twa* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | Twas *= twa* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **happen** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **be** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past | Twas *= twa* | the king's chief harper |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harper=Topic |
| 6 | **hang** | gerund | the king's chief harper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **be** | should · perfect | the lank grey beggarman |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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