---
title: Dear me," said Tom, "but isn't it surprising to hear the stonechatte… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Dear me," said Tom, "but isn't it surprising to hear the stonechatters singing so late in the season?" Who acts: Tom, stonechatters. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Field of Boliauns, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Field of Boliauns, sentence 2

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Dear me," said Tom, "but isn't it surprising to hear the stonechatters singing so late in the season?"

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**Who acts:** Tom, stonechatters · **What happens:** say, not be, hear, sing · **To what, where:** stonechatters · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Field of Boliauns. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tom, stonechatters), 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:pg7885:7:2
# text = Dear me," said Tom, "but isn't it surprising to hear the stonechatters singing so late in the season?"
1	Dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
2	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	expl	_	_
13	surprising	surprising	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	csubj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	stonechatters	stonechatter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **is** | present | Tom *not said here* |  |  |  |  | surprising *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | to-infinitive |  | the stonechatters |  |  |  | late *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer stonechatter=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the stonechatters *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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