---
title: Some of them were riding on an old besom, and some on a broken stick… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Some of them were riding on an old besom, and some on a broken stick, and more on a bohalawn or a hemlock-stalk. Who acts: Some. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 2, sentence 17

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Some of them were riding on an old besom, and some on a broken stick, and more on a bohalawn or a hemlock-stalk.

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**Who acts:** Some · **What happens:** ride, break · **To what, where:** old besom

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Some), 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:pg7885:5:17
# text = Some of them were riding on an old besom, and some on a broken stick, and more on a bohalawn or a hemlock-stalk.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nmod	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	riding	ride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	besom	besom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	nsubj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	conj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bohalawn	bohalawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	hemlock	hemlock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	stalk	stalk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ride** | past · progressive | Some |  |  | a old besom |  | on a broken stick | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

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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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