---
title: "If my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and the cats, so t… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "If my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and the cats, so that they shouldn't be going near the king's meat," said the little laddie. Who acts: father, dogs, little laddie. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Battle of the Birds, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"If my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and the cats, so that they shouldn't be going near the king's meat," said the little laddie.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, dogs, little laddie · **What happens:** have, beat, not go, say · **To what, where:** rod, dogs, meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, dogs, little laddie), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7885:31:70
# text = "If my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and the cats, so that they shouldn't be going near the king's meat," said the little laddie.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
24	near	near	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	laddie	laddie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | my father | that rod |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rod=Patient |
| 2 | **beat** *in a quote* | would | father | the dogs and the cats |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location dog=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **go** *in a quote* | should · progressive | dogs *= dog* |  |  | the king's meat |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme near meat=Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the little laddie |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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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