---
title: But the herd struggled for a hold of the club of magic, and with one… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the herd struggled for a hold of the club of magic, and with one blow on the top of the head she was on earth in the twinkling of an eye. Who acts: herd, crone. 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 73

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But the herd struggled for a hold of the club of magic, and with one blow on the top of the head she was on earth in the twinkling of an eye.

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**Who acts:** herd, crone · **What happens:** struggle, be, hold · **To what, where:** earth, club

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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 (herd, crone), 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:pg7885:21:73
# text = But the herd struggled for a hold of the club of magic, and with one blow on the top of the head she was on earth in the twinkling of an eye.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	club	club	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **struggle** | past | the herd |  |  |  |  | for a hold of the club of magic; with one blow on the top of the head and earth | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with blow=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | crone |  |  | earth |  | in the twinkling of a eye | tree rules |
| 3 | **hold** |  |  | the club of magic |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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