---
title: He had but the one chance, and a short one at that; but he took it,… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He had but the one chance, and a short one at that; but he took it, and hit the spot, and the whale, mad with pain, made the sea all around red with blood, and died. Who acts: cowboy, whale. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fair, Brown, and Trembling, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Fair, Brown, and Trembling, sentence 157

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had but the one chance, and a short one at that; but he took it, and hit the spot, and the whale, mad with pain, made the sea all around red with blood, and died.

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**Who acts:** cowboy, whale · **What happens:** have, take, hit, make, die · **To what, where:** one chance, chance, spot, sea

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fair, Brown, and Trembling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cowboy, whale), 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:pg7885:23:157
# text = He had but the one chance, and a short one at that; but he took it, and hit the spot, and the whale, mad with pain, made the sea all around red with blood, and died.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	whale	whale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	mad	mad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	appos	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
33	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	all	all	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
37	around	around	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | cowboy | the one chance |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient |
| 2 | **take** | past | cowboy | chance |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **hit** | past | cowboy *not said here* | the spot |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme spot=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **make** | past | the whale | the sea |  |  |  | red *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sea=Product |
| 5 | **die** | past | cowboy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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