---
title: As he was doubting what he ought to do, and hesitating, he chanced t… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: As he was doubting what he ought to do, and hesitating, he chanced to remember the priest. " Who acts: devil. 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 46

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As he was doubting what he ought to do, and hesitating, he chanced to remember the priest. "

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**Who acts:** devil · **What happens:** doubt, do, hesitate, chance, remember · **To what, where:** priest

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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 (devil), 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:pg7885:5:46
# text = As he was doubting what he ought to do, and hesitating, he chanced to remember the priest. "
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	doubting	doubt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	ought	ought	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	hesitating	hesitate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	chanced	chance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	remember	remember	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **doubt** | past · progressive | devil |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | ought | devil |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **hesitate** | gerund | devil *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **chance** | past | devil |  |  |  |  |  | vn risk-94-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **remember** | to-infinitive | devil *not said here* | the priest |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent priest=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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