---
title: Twas the hour he was wont to hear a story, but send he might right a… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Twas the hour he was wont to hear a story, but send he might right and left, not a jot of tidings about the story-teller could he get. Who acts: Twas, jot. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story-teller At Fault, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story-teller At Fault, sentence 123

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Twas the hour he was wont to hear a story, but send he might right and left, not a jot of tidings about the story-teller could he get.

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**Who acts:** Twas, jot · **What happens:** be, hear, send, leave, get, jot · **To what, where:** story, tidings

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story-teller At Fault. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Twas, jot), 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:pg7885:20:123
# text = Twas the hour he was wont to hear a story, but send he might right and left, not a jot of tidings about the story-teller could he get.
1	Twas	twa	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	wont	wont	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	send	send	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
16	right	right	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	jot	jot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	tidings	tiding	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
25	about	about	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	teller	teller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Twas |  |  |  |  | wont *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | to-infinitive | Twas *not said here* | a story |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 3 | **send** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | right *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **leave** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **get** | could | a jot of tidings about the story teller |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **jot** |  |  | tidings about the story teller |  |  |  |  | nom jot «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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