---
title: But so far away was it that at night it seemed no nearer, and they s… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But so far away was it that at night it seemed no nearer, and they scarcely reached it on the third day. Who acts: it, nephew. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Wooing of Olwen, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/40/)

<!-- 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/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / [The Wooing of Olwen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/) / 40

# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Wooing of Olwen, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But so far away was it that at night it seemed no nearer, and they scarcely reached it on the third day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, nephew · **What happens:** be, seem, reach · **To what, where:** it, castle

<!-- .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 (it, nephew), 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:pg7885:17:40
# text = But so far away was it that at night it seemed no nearer, and they scarcely reached it on the third day.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
4	away	away	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:outer	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	23	amod	_	_
23	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | it |  |  |  | away *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  | night | near *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **reach** | past | nephew | castle |  |  | day | scarcely *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/41/)
- ↑ back to [The Wooing of Olwen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/)