---
title: Caesar tells us that the Gaulish bards and druids did not employ let… — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · tree and pragmatics
description: Caesar tells us that the Gaulish bards and druids did not employ letters for the preservation of their lore, but trusted to memory, assisted, doubtless, as in this country, by the mechanical and musical aid of verse. Who acts: Caesar, Gaulish bards. A sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/81/)

<!-- 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/) / [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/) / [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., par…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/) / 81

# Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Caesar tells us that the Gaulish bards and druids did not employ letters for the preservation of their lore, but trusted to memory, assisted, doubtless, as in this country, by the mechanical and musical aid of verse.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Caesar, Gaulish bards · **What happens:** tell, not employ, trust, assist, preserve · **To what, where:** us, letters, memory, lore · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Caesar, Gaulish bards), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8109:5:81
# text = Caesar tells us that the Gaulish bards and druids did not employ letters for the preservation of their lore, but trusted to memory, assisted, doubtless, as in this country, by the mechanical and musical aid of verse.
1	Caesar	Caesar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	Gaulish	Gaulish	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	bards	bard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	druids	druid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	employ	employ	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
13	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	preservation	preservation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	lore	lore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	trusted	trust	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	memory	memory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	assisted	assist	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	doubtless	doubtless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	det	_	_
33	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	by	by	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
37	mechanical	mechanical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	musical	musical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	conj	_	_
40	aid	aid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	advcl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	verse	verse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | Caesar |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent we=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **employ** *not said to happen* | past · do-support | the Gaulish bards and druids | letters |  |  |  | for the preservation of bard's lore | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent letter=Theme for preservation=Eventuality |
| 3 | **trust** | participle | Caesar *not said here* |  | memory |  |  | this country *conj*; the mechanical aid of verse *advcl* | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to memory=Recipient |
| 4 | **assist** | participle | Caesar *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **preserve** |  |  | bard's lore |  |  |  |  | nom preservation «act 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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Project Gutenberg book 8109 (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 80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/80/)
- next →: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/82/)
- ↑ back to [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/5/)