---
title: The old man answered and said, "Not I." "What reward would you give… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old man answered and said, "Not I." "What reward would you give me for sending plenty of fish to you?" " Who acts: old man, reward. 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 3

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The old man answered and said, "Not I." "What reward would you give me for sending plenty of fish to you?" "

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**Who acts:** old man, reward · **What happens:** answer, say, give, send · **To what, where:** old man, plenty, you · **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 (old man, reward), 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:pg7885:21:3
# text = The old man answered and said, "Not I." "What reward would you give me for sending plenty of fish to you?" "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	I.	I.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
14	reward	reward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	sending	send	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
21	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** *in a quote* | would | reward |  | the old man *= man* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient what=Theme |
| 4 | **send** *in a quote* | gerund | reward *not said here* | plenty of fish | you |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent plenty=Theme to you=Destination |

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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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