--- title: As he spoke, he clapped his thumb in his mouth, which he always did… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: As he spoke, he clapped his thumb in his mouth, which he always did when he wanted to prophesy, or to know anything that happened in his absence; and the wife asked him what he did it for. Who acts: Cucullin, wife. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany, with its --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/22/29/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / [A Legend of Knockmany](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/22/) / 29 # Celtic Fairy Tales, A Legend of Knockmany, sentence 29 As he spoke, he clapped his thumb in his mouth, which he always did when he wanted to prophesy, or to know anything that happened in his absence; and the wife asked him what he did it for. **Who acts:** Cucullin, wife · **What happens:** speak, clap, do, want, prophesy, know · **To what, where:** thumb, anything, absence, Cucullin · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7885:22:29 # text = As he spoke, he clapped his thumb in his mouth, which he always did when he wanted to prophesy, or to know anything that happened in his absence; and the wife asked him what he did it for. 1 As as SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 spoke speak VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 5 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 6 clapped clap VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 7 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 8 nmod:poss _ _ 8 thumb thumb NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obj _ _ 9 in in ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 mouth mouth NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 13 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 16 obj _ _ 14 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 nsubj _ _ 15 always always ADV RB PronType=Tot 16 advmod _ _ 16 did do VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 acl:relcl _ _ 17 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 19 advmod _ _ 18 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nsubj _ _ 19 wanted want VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 16 advcl _ _ 20 to to PART TO _ 21 mark _ _ 21 prophesy prophesy VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 19 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 22 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 23 or or CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 24 to to PART TO _ 25 mark _ _ 25 know know VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 21 conj _ _ 26 anything anything PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 25 obj _ _ 27 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 28 nsubj _ _ 28 happened happen VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 26 acl:relcl _ _ 29 in in ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 31 nmod:poss _ _ 31 absence absence NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 ; ; PUNCT : _ 36 punct _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 34 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 wife wife NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 nsubj _ _ 36 asked ask VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 conj _ _ 37 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 iobj _ _ 38 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 40 obj _ _ 39 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 nsubj _ _ 40 did do VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 ccomp _ _ 41 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 obj _ _ 42 for for ADP IN _ 40 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 6 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Cucullin | | | | | | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **clap** | past | Cucullin | Cucullin's thumb | | | | in Cucullin's mouth | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent thumb=Patient in mouth=Theme | | 3 | **do** | past | Cucullin | Cucullin's thumb | | | | always *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality | | 4 | **want** | past | Cucullin | | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | | 5 | **prophesy** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Cucullin *not said here* | | | | | | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **know** | to-infinitive | Cucullin *not said here* | anything | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus | | 7 | **happen** | past | | | | Cucullin's absence | | | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in absence=Location | | 8 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the wife | | Cucullin | | | | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | | 9 | **do** | past | Cucullin | thumb | | | | | tree rules | | 10 | **absent** | | Cucullin | | | | | | nom absence «state transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/22/28/) - next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/22/30/) - ↑ back to [A Legend of Knockmany](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/22/)