---
title: But about the time when he should drive the cattle homewards, who sh… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But about the time when he should drive the cattle homewards, who should he see coming but a great giant with his sword in his hand? " Who acts: hardship, cattle homewards. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-maiden, sentence 38

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But about the time when he should drive the cattle homewards, who should he see coming but a great giant with his sword in his hand? "

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**Who acts:** hardship, cattle homewards · **What happens:** drive, see, come · **To what, where:** cattle homewards, hand

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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 (hardship, cattle homewards), 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:pg7885:21:38
# text = But about the time when he should drive the cattle homewards, who should he see coming but a great giant with his sword in his hand? "
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	about	about	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	drive	drive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	cattle	cattle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	homewards	homeward	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	_
17	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	xcomp	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drive** | should | hardship | the cattle homewards but a great giant with hardship's sword |  | hardship's hand | time |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent homeward=Theme in hand=Destination |
| 2 | **see** | should | the cattle homewards but a great giant with hardship's sword |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | gerund | the cattle homewards but a great giant with hardship's sword *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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