---
title: That fantastical way of bearing testimony to the previous tale by pr… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: That fantastical way of bearing testimony to the previous tale by producing an old woman who says the tale is not only true, but who was the very old woman who lived in the giant's castle is almost" (why "almost," Mr. Thackeray?) "a stroke of genius." Who acts: fantastical way, old woman, tale, Thac
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, V. Conal Yellowclaw., sentence 11

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That fantastical way of bearing testimony to the previous tale by producing an old woman who says the tale is not only true, but who was the very old woman who lived in the giant's castle is almost" (why "almost," Mr. Thackeray?) "a stroke of genius."

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**Who acts:** fantastical way, old woman, tale, Thackeray · **What happens:** bear, produce, say, not be, be, live · **To what, where:** testimony, old woman, castle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, V. Conal Yellowclaw.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fantastical way, old woman, tale, Thackeray), 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:pg7885:39:11
# text = That fantastical way of bearing testimony to the previous tale by producing an old woman who says the tale is not only true, but who was the very old woman who lived in the giant's castle is almost" (why "almost," Mr. Thackeray?) "a stroke of genius."
1	That	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	fantastical	fantastical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	bearing	bear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	testimony	testimony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	previous	previous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	producing	produce	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	advcl	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
26	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
32	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
33	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	's	's	PART	POS	_	36	case	_	_
38	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
40	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	39	punct	_	_
42	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
44	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	45	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	45	punct	_	_
48	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	49	nmod:desc	_	_
49	Thackeray	Thackeray	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	54	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	49	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	49	punct	_	_
52	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	54	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	stroke	stroke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	ccomp	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	genius	genius	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	54	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	54	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | gerund | that fantastical way *not said here* | testimony |  |  |  | to the previous tale | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent testimony=Patient |
| 2 | **produce** | gerund | that fantastical way *not said here* | a old woman |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent woman=Result |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | a old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | the tale |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | that fantastical way | the old woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **live** | past | the old woman |  |  | the giant's castle |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in castle=Location |
| 7 | **is** *in a quote* | present | that fantastical way |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **stroke** |  | Thackeray  Mr. |  |  |  |  | of genius | tree rules |

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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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