---
title: He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not kn… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not known where he now is, nor whether he is living or dead." Who acts: Turch. 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/pg7885/17/90/)

<!-- 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/) / 90

# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Wooing of Olwen, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not known where he now is, nor whether he is living or dead."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Turch · **What happens:** take, not know, be, live · **To what, where:** Turch, pledge · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Turch), 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:pg7885:17:90
# text = He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not known where he now is, nor whether he is living or dead."
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
17	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	20	advmod	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
20	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	26	cc	_	_
23	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past · passive |  | Turch |  |  |  | from Turch's mother | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: subject=Theme from mother=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **not** **know** | present · passive |  | pledge |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | present | Turch |  |  |  | now |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **live** | present · progressive | Turch |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/89/)
- next →: [sentence 91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/91/)
- ↑ back to [The Wooing of Olwen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/17/)