---
title: But on a gloomy winter night, with black, scowling clouds, a hunter… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But on a gloomy winter night, with black, scowling clouds, a hunter of game was wearily travelling the hills, and what happened but that he missed the trail of the hunt, and lost his course and companions. Who acts: man. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre, with
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But on a gloomy winter night, with black, scowling clouds, a hunter of game was wearily travelling the hills, and what happened but that he missed the trail of the hunt, and lost his course and companions.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** scowl, travel, happen, miss, lose · **To what, where:** hills, trail, course

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of Deirdre. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg7885:13:28
# text = But on a gloomy winter night, with black, scowling clouds, a hunter of game was wearily travelling the hills, and what happened but that he missed the trail of the hunt, and lost his course and companions.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
2	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	gloomy	gloomy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	scowling	scowl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	amod	_	_
12	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hunter	hunter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	wearily	wearily	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	travelling	travel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	nsubj	_	_
26	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	trail	trail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	hunt	hunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	companions	companion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scowl** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **travel** | past · progressive |  | the hills |  |  | night | wearily *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hill=Trajectory |
| 3 | **happen** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **miss** | past | man | the trail of the hunt |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer trail=Stimulus |
| 5 | **lose** | past |  | man's course and companions |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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