---
title: He told how it happened to him, and that he had to get the brown hor… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He told how it happened to him, and that he had to get the brown horse for the king of Erin, or that his sons were to be put to death. " Who acts: necessity, it. 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 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He told how it happened to him, and that he had to get the brown horse for the king of Erin, or that his sons were to be put to death. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** necessity, it · **What happens:** tell, happen, have, get, put · **To what, where:** necessity, brown horse, sons · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (necessity, it), 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:pg7885:9:52
# text = He told how it happened to him, and that he had to get the brown horse for the king of Erin, or that his sons were to be put to death. "
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Erin	Erin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | necessity |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **happen** | past | it |  | necessity |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | necessity |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive | necessity *not said here* | the brown horse |  |  |  | for the king of Erin | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent horse=Theme for king=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **put** | past · passive |  | necessity's sons |  |  |  | to death | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |

<!-- .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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