---
title: I went in, and I said to her, 'What was the matter that you were put… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I went in, and I said to her, 'What was the matter that you were putting the knife on the neck of the child?' ' Who acts: I, that. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Conall Yellowclaw, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Conall Yellowclaw, sentence 174

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I went in, and I said to her, 'What was the matter that you were putting the knife on the neck of the child?' '

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**Who acts:** I, that · **What happens:** go in, say, be, put · **To what, where:** woman, matter, knife, neck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Conall Yellowclaw. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, that), 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:pg7885:9:174
# text = I went in, and I said to her, 'What was the matter that you were putting the knife on the neck of the child?' '
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	putting	put	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	parataxis	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go in** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I |  | woman |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **put** | past · progressive | that | the knife |  | the neck of the child |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme on neck=Destination |

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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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