---
title: The king asked if there were any one else about the house that would… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The king asked if there were any one else about the house that would try to take the heads off the knot. Who acts: king, one, house. 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 134

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The king asked if there were any one else about the house that would try to take the heads off the knot.

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**Who acts:** king, one, house · **What happens:** ask, be, try, take · **To what, where:** heads, knot

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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 (king, one, house), 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:pg7885:21:134
# text = The king asked if there were any one else about the house that would try to take the heads off the knot.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
9	else	else	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | any one about the house |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | would | the house |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the house *not said here* | the heads |  | the knot |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent head=Theme off knot=Initial\_Location |

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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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