---
title: "Is it a story you want?" said my grandfather as bold as may be, for… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Is it a story you want?" said my grandfather as bold as may be, for he was just tired of being frightened. " Who acts: story, you, grandfather, man. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, "andrew Coffey! Andrew Coffey!", with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, "andrew Coffey! Andrew Coffey!", sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Is it a story you want?" said my grandfather as bold as may be, for he was just tired of being frightened. "

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**Who acts:** story, you, grandfather, man · **What happens:** be, want, say, frighten · **To what, where:** story · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, "andrew Coffey! Andrew Coffey!". The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (story, you, grandfather, man), 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:pg7885:30:4
# text = "Is it a story you want?" said my grandfather as bold as may be, for he was just tired of being frightened. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	bold	bold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
16	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	just	just	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advcl	_	_
24	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | story | a story |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **want** *in a quote* | present | you | a story *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot story=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | my grandfather |  |  |  |  | as bold | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | may | man |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **frighten** | gerund · passive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |

<!-- .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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