---
title: He began thinking, then, what it was he ought to do to save her, but… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He began thinking, then, what it was he ought to do to save her, but he could think of nothing. " Who acts: GULEESH. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/4/101/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / [Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/4/) / 101

# Celtic Fairy Tales, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 1, sentence 101

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He began thinking, then, what it was he ought to do to save her, but he could think of nothing. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** GULEESH · **What happens:** begin, think, do, save · **To what, where:** Musha

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (GULEESH), 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:pg7885:4:101
# text = He began thinking, then, what it was he ought to do to save her, but he could think of nothing. "
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	parataxis	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | GULEESH |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | GULEESH *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | GULEESH *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **save** | to-infinitive | GULEESH *not said here* | Musha |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | could | GULEESH |  |  |  |  | of nothing | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/4/100/)
- next →: [sentence 102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/4/102/)
- ↑ back to [Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/4/)