---
title: By one blow of his fists he flattened a thunderbolt and kept it in h… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: By one blow of his fists he flattened a thunderbolt and kept it in his pocket, in the shape of a pancake, to show to all his enemies, when they were about to fight him. Who acts: Cucullin, fame, fists. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany, with its dependency tr
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, A Legend of Knockmany, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By one blow of his fists he flattened a thunderbolt and kept it in his pocket, in the shape of a pancake, to show to all his enemies, when they were about to fight him.

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**Who acts:** Cucullin, fame, fists · **What happens:** flatten, keep, show, be, fight, blow · **To what, where:** thunderbolt, pocket, enemies, Cucullin

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cucullin, fame, fists), 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:pg7885:22:10
# text = By one blow of his fists he flattened a thunderbolt and kept it in his pocket, in the shape of a pancake, to show to all his enemies, when they were about to fight him.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	fists	fist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	flattened	flatten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	thunderbolt	thunderbolt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	pocket	pocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	parataxis	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	pancake	pancake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	show	show	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	enemies	enemy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	35	advmod	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flatten** | past | Cucullin | a thunderbolt |  |  |  | by one blow of Cucullin's fists | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thunderbolt=Patient |
| 2 | **keep** | past | Cucullin *not said here* | thunderbolt |  | Cucullin's pocket |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in pocket=Location |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive |  |  | Cucullin's enemies |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to enemy=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | fame |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **fight** | to-infinitive | fame *not said here* | Cucullin |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **blow** |  | Cucullin's fists |  |  |  |  |  | nom blow «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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