---
title: What chance could he have, strong and brave though he was, with a ma… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: What chance could he have, strong and brave though he was, with a man who could, when put in a passion, walk the country into earthquakes and knock thunderbolts into pancakes? Who acts: chance. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, A Legend of Knockmany, sentence 41

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What chance could he have, strong and brave though he was, with a man who could, when put in a passion, walk the country into earthquakes and knock thunderbolts into pancakes?

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**Who acts:** chance · **What happens:** have, be, put, walk, knock · **To what, where:** man, passion, country, earthquakes, thunderbolts, pancakes

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chance), 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:pg7885:22:41
# text = What chance could he have, strong and brave though he was, with a man who could, when put in a passion, walk the country into earthquakes and knock thunderbolts into pancakes?
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
10	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
21	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	passion	passion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	walk	walk	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	earthquakes	earthquake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	knock	knock	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
33	thunderbolts	thunderbolt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	_
34	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	pancakes	pancake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | could | what chance |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | chance |  |  |  |  | with a man | tree rules |
| 3 | **put** | could · passive |  | a man |  | a passion |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in passion=Destination |
| 4 | **walk** | infinitive |  | the country |  | earthquakes |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent country=Theme into earthquake=Trajectory |
| 5 | **knock** | present |  | thunderbolts |  | pancakes |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent thunderbolt=Theme into pancake=Destination |

<!-- .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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