---
title: It came into his head then that perhaps it was poison that was in it… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It came into his head then that perhaps it was poison that was in it, and that the good people were only tempting him that he might kill himself with that trick, or put the girl to death without meaning it. Who acts: water, poison, good people, herb. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jaco
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/6/34/)

<!-- 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/6/) / 34

# Celtic Fairy Tales, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 3, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It came into his head then that perhaps it was poison that was in it, and that the good people were only tempting him that he might kill himself with that trick, or put the girl to death without meaning it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** water, poison, good people, herb · **What happens:** come, be, tempt, kill, put, mean · **To what, where:** head, poison, herb, girl, water

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water, poison, good people, herb), 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:pg7885:6:34
# text = It came into his head then that perhaps it was poison that was in it, and that the good people were only tempting him that he might kill himself with that trick, or put the girl to death without meaning it.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
8	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	tempting	tempt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
30	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obj	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	det	_	_
33	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
41	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
42	meaning	mean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	advcl	_	_
43	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | water |  |  | herb's head |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into head=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | water | poison |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | poison |  |  | poison | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tempt** | past · progressive | the good people |  | herb |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **kill** | might | herb | herb |  |  |  | with that trick | vn murder-42.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent himself=Patient with trick=Instrument |
| 6 | **put** | infinitive | water *not said here* |  | the girl |  |  | to death | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent girl=Goal |
| 7 | **mean** | gerund | water *not said here* | water |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/6/33/)
- next →: [sentence 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/6/35/)
- ↑ back to [Connla and the Fairy Maiden, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/6/)