---
title: Hard is the matter you require of me, but I will lose my own life, a… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Hard is the matter you require of me, but I will lose my own life, and the life of my sons, or else I will do the pleasure of the king." Who acts: you, I. 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 8

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Hard is the matter you require of me, but I will lose my own life, and the life of my sons, or else I will do the pleasure of the king."

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**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** be, require, lose, do, please · **To what, where:** matter, life, own life, pleasure, king

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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 (you, I), 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:pg7885:9:8
# text = Hard is the matter you require of me, but I will lose my own life, and the life of my sons, or else I will do the pleasure of the king."
1	Hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	require	require	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	else	else	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | the matter |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **require** | present | you | the life of my sons |  |  |  | of me | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **lose** | future | I | my own life |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Eventuality |
| 4 | **do** | future | I | the pleasure of the king |  |  |  | else *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Eventuality |
| 5 | **please** |  |  | the king |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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