---
title: All they could say had no effect: he started off for the Townland of… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: All they could say had no effect: he started off for the Townland of Mischance, and in a twelvemonth he was back just as miserable and helpless as his brother. Who acts: brothers, eldest. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Master, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Master, sentence 10

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All they could say had no effect: he started off for the Townland of Mischance, and in a twelvemonth he was back just as miserable and helpless as his brother.

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**Who acts:** brothers, eldest · **What happens:** say, have, start off, be · **To what, where:** effect, twelvemonth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Master. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, eldest), 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:pg7885:24:10
# text = All they could say had no effect: he started off for the Townland of Mischance, and in a twelvemonth he was back just as miserable and helpless as his brother.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	acl:relcl	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	effect	effect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	off	off	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Townland	Townland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Mischance	mischance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	twelvemonth	twelvemonth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	just	just	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advcl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	helpless	helpless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | brothers *= brother* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **have** | past |  | no effect |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Patient |
| 3 | **start off** | past | eldest *= eld* |  |  |  |  | for the Townland of Mischance | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past | eldest *= eld* |  |  | a twelvemonth |  | back *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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