---
title: There is no knowing," said the herd, "but that's easier to say than… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There is no knowing," said the herd, "but that's easier to say than to do." Who acts: that. 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 59

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There is no knowing," said the herd, "but that's easier to say than to do."

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**Who acts:** that · **What happens:** be, know, say, do · **To what, where:** herd · **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 (that), 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:pg7885:21:59
# text = There is no knowing," said the herd, "but that's easier to say than to do."
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	csubj	_	_
18	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the herd |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent herd=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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