---
title: For this," said the dog, "if swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: For this," said the dog, "if swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth will give thee aid, mind me, and I will be at thy side." Who acts: swiftness, I. 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 31

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For this," said the dog, "if swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth will give thee aid, mind me, and I will be at thy side."

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**Who acts:** swiftness, I · **What happens:** say, give, mind, be · **To what, where:** dog, aid, thee, me, side · **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 (swiftness, I), 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:pg7885:21:31
# text = For this," said the dog, "if swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth will give thee aid, mind me, and I will be at thy side."
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
11	swiftness	swiftness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	sharpness	sharpness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	tooth	tooth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
20	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	iobj	_	_
21	aid	aid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
28	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the dog |  |  |  | for this | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | future | swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth | aid | thee |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient aid=Theme |
| 3 | **mind** | infinitive | swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | future | I |  |  | thy side |  |  | tree rules |

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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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