---
title: When he had his story told, he laid down the flail on the stone step… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When he had his story told, he laid down the flail on the stone steps, and bid no one for their lives to touch it. Who acts: Tom, story. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Lad With the Goat-skin, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Lad With the Goat-skin, sentence 88

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When he had his story told, he laid down the flail on the stone steps, and bid no one for their lives to touch it.

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**Who acts:** Tom, story · **What happens:** have, tell, lay down, bid, touch · **To what, where:** flail, one, story · **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, story), 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:pg7885:33:88
# text = When he had his story told, he laid down the flail on the stone steps, and bid no one for their lives to touch it.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	flail	flail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	bid	bid	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Tom's story |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lay down** | past | Tom | the flail |  |  |  | on the stone steps | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent flail=Theme on step=Destination |
| 4 | **bid** | past | Tom *not said here* | no one |  |  |  | for claws's lives | tree rules |
| 5 | **touch** | to-infinitive | Tom *not said here* | story |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |

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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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