---
title: But they were not long there when they saw the beast steaming in the… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But they were not long there when they saw the beast steaming in the midst of the loch. Who acts: gold, beast. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-maiden, sentence 113

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But they were not long there when they saw the beast steaming in the midst of the loch.

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**Who acts:** gold, beast · **What happens:** be, see, steam · **To what, where:** beast

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gold, beast), 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:pg7885:21:113
# text = But they were not long there when they saw the beast steaming in the midst of the loch.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	steaming	steam	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	loch	loch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | gold |  |  |  |  | long, there *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | gold | the beast |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer beast=Stimulus |
| 3 | **steam** | gerund | the beast *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the midst of the loch | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V PP.result PP.instrument»: agent=Patient in midst=Instrument |

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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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