---
title: On a day of days, while he was fishing, there rose a sea-maiden at t… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: On a day of days, while he was fishing, there rose a sea-maiden at the side of his boat, and she asked him, "Are you getting much fish?" Who acts: fisherman, fish. 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 2

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On a day of days, while he was fishing, there rose a sea-maiden at the side of his boat, and she asked him, "Are you getting much fish?"

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**Who acts:** fisherman, fish · **What happens:** fish, rise, ask, get · **To what, where:** fisherman, much fish · **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 (fisherman, fish), 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:pg7885:21:2
# text = On a day of days, while he was fishing, there rose a sea-maiden at the side of his boat, and she asked him, "Are you getting much fish?"
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	fishing	fish	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	ccomp	_	_
34	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fish** | past · progressive | fisherman |  |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **rise** | past |  |  |  | there | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | fish |  | fisherman |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **get** *in a quote* | present · progressive | fisherman | much fish |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer fish=Stimulus |

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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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