---
title: But it wasn't for long; who but his wife called the hounds, and set… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But it wasn't for long; who but his wife called the hounds, and set them on him. Who acts: hare. 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 63

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But it wasn't for long; who but his wife called the hounds, and set them on him.

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**Who acts:** hare · **What happens:** not be, call, set · **To what, where:** wife, hounds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (hare), 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:pg7885:20:63
# text = But it wasn't for long; who but his wife called the hounds, and set them on him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	parataxis	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
12	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hounds	hound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | hare |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | man's wife *not said here* | the hounds |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent hound=Recipient |
| 3 | **set** | infinitive | hare *not said here* | hounds *= hound* |  |  |  | on man | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme on he=Destination |

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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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