---
title: He found no difficulty in "there was once a king who had three sons"… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He found no difficulty in "there was once a king who had three sons" or "one day the king of all Ireland," but further than that he could not get. Who acts: teller, king. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story-teller At Fault, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story-teller At Fault, sentence 6

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He found no difficulty in "there was once a king who had three sons" or "one day the king of all Ireland," but further than that he could not get.

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**Who acts:** teller, king · **What happens:** find, have, not get · **To what, where:** difficulty, three sons · **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 (teller, king), 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:pg7885:20:6
# text = He found no difficulty in "there was once a king who had three sons" or "one day the king of all Ireland," but further than that he could not get.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	8	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	further	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	_
30	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | teller | no difficulty |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent difficulty=Topic |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | past | a king | three sons or one day |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **get** | could | teller |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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