---
title: A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than a… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. Who acts: task, I. 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.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 1, sentence 18

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A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship.

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**Who acts:** task, I · **What happens:** be, lay, seize · **To what, where:** kingship

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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 (task, I), 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:pg7885:4:18
# text = A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	wit	wit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	amod	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	obl	_	_
18	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	kingship	kingship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | a task |  |  |  |  | for my skill and wit; great *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | upon me | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent upon i=Destination |
| 3 | **seize** | past | I | the kingship |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kingship=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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