---
title: Tom had a little more trouble with him--that's all; and the prayers… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Tom had a little more trouble with him--that's all; and the prayers he said, was to give Tom a fife; that nobody could help dancing when he was playing it. Who acts: Tom, that, prayers, nobody. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Lad With the Goat-skin, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Lad With the Goat-skin, sentence 13

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Tom had a little more trouble with him--that's all; and the prayers he said, was to give Tom a fife; that nobody could help dancing when he was playing it.

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**Who acts:** Tom, that, prayers, nobody · **What happens:** have, be, say, give, help, dance · **To what, where:** little more trouble, fife, Tom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Lad With the Goat-skin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, that, prayers, nobody), 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:pg7885:33:13
# text = Tom had a little more trouble with him--that's all; and the prayers he said, was to give Tom a fife; that nobody could help dancing when he was playing it.
1	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	's	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	all	all	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	prayers	prayer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
23	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	iobj	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fife	fife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
27	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	30	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
31	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	xcomp	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	35	advmod	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	conj	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Tom | a little more trouble |  |  |  | with giant | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trouble=Patient |
| 2 | **be** | present | that |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the prayers |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **give** | past |  | a fife | Tom |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent tom=Recipient fife=Theme |
| 5 | **help** | could | nobody |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **dance** | gerund | nobody *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **play** | past · progressive | Tom | fife |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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