---
title: But before they could obtain the comb he had regained the ground wit… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But before they could obtain the comb he had regained the ground with his feet, and from the moment that he reached the shore, neither dog nor man nor horse could overtake him until he came to Cornwall. Who acts: scissors, son, dog. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Wooing of 
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Wooing of Olwen, sentence 152

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But before they could obtain the comb he had regained the ground with his feet, and from the moment that he reached the shore, neither dog nor man nor horse could overtake him until he came to Cornwall.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** scissors, son, dog · **What happens:** obtain, regain, reach, overtake, come · **To what, where:** comb, ground, shore, son, Cornwall

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (scissors, son, dog), 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:pg7885:17:152
# text = But before they could obtain the comb he had regained the ground with his feet, and from the moment that he reached the shore, neither dog nor man nor horse could overtake him until he came to Cornwall.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	obtain	obtain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	regained	regain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	28	cc:preconj	_	_
28	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
29	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	30	cc	_	_
30	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
31	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	32	cc	_	_
32	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	overtake	overtake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	parataxis	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Cornwall	Cornwall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obtain** | could | scissors | the comb |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset comb=Theme |
| 2 | **regain** | past · perfect | son | the ground |  |  |  | with son's feet | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ground=Theme |
| 3 | **reach** | past | son | the shore |  |  | moment |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent shore=Theme |
| 4 | **overtake** | could | dog nor man nor horse | son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past | son |  |  | Cornwall |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to cornwall=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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