---
title: He started out of the cradle, and in a few minutes the great Cuculli… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He started out of the cradle, and in a few minutes the great Cucullin, that was for such a length of time the terror of him and all his followers, lay a corpse before him. Who acts: Cucullin, that. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, A Legend of Knockmany, sentence 128

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He started out of the cradle, and in a few minutes the great Cucullin, that was for such a length of time the terror of him and all his followers, lay a corpse before him.

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**Who acts:** Cucullin, that · **What happens:** start out, be, lay · **To what, where:** cradle, corpse

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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, 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:pg7885:22:128
# text = He started out of the cradle, and in a few minutes the great Cucullin, that was for such a length of time the terror of him and all his followers, lay a corpse before him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	out	out	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cradle	cradle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Cucullin	Cucullin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	22	det:predet	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	32	det:predet	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	followers	follower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
34	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	corpse	corpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	before	before	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start out** | past | Cucullin | the cradle |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cradle=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  | time | for such length | tree rules |
| 3 | **lay** | present |  | a corpse |  |  | before Cucullin; minute |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent corpse=Theme before he=Destination |

<!-- .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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