---
title: Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, "Break not the egg,… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, "Break not the egg, and you shall get all you ask." " Who acts: Twas, princess, you. 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 170

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Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, "Break not the egg, and you shall get all you ask." "

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**Who acts:** Twas, princess, you · **What happens:** appear, say, not break, get, ask · **To what, where:** egg · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Twas, princess, you), 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:pg7885:21:170
# text = Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, "Break not the egg, and you shall get all you ask." "
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
23	all	all	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | past | Twas |  |  |  | then |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **break** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the egg |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer egg=Patient |
| 4 | **get** *in a quote* | shall | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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