---
title: Now, when they told Arthur how they had sped, Arthur said, "Which of… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now, when they told Arthur how they had sped, Arthur said, "Which of these marvels will it be best for us to seek first?" Who acts: things, Arthur, us. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Wooing of Olwen, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Wooing of Olwen, sentence 101

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Now, when they told Arthur how they had sped, Arthur said, "Which of these marvels will it be best for us to seek first?"

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**Who acts:** things, Arthur, us · **What happens:** tell, speed, say, be, seek · **To what, where:** Arthur · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Wooing of Olwen. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (things, Arthur, us), 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:pg7885:17:101
# text = Now, when they told Arthur how they had sped, Arthur said, "Which of these marvels will it be best for us to seek first?"
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
6	Arthur	Arthur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	iobj	_	_
7	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	sped	speed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	Arthur	Arthur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	marvels	marvel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	expl	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
23	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	ccomp	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	csubj	_	_
28	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | things *= thing* |  | Arthur |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent arthur=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **speed** | past · perfect | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Arthur |  |  |  | now |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | future |  |  |  |  |  | of this marvels; good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **seek** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | us |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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