---
title: All the poor mother could say didn't prevent Jack the Fool from star… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: All the poor mother could say didn't prevent Jack the Fool from starting to see if he was able to regulate the Gray Churl. Who acts: poor mother, eldest. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Master, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Master, sentence 11

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All the poor mother could say didn't prevent Jack the Fool from starting to see if he was able to regulate the Gray Churl.

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**Who acts:** poor mother, eldest · **What happens:** say, not prevent, start, see, be, regulate · **To what, where:** Jack, Gray Churl · **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 (poor mother, 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:pg7885:24:11
# text = All the poor mother could say didn't prevent Jack the Fool from starting to see if he was able to regulate the Gray Churl.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
10	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	starting	start	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	regulate	regulate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	Gray	Gray	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	amod	_	_
25	Churl	Churl	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	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 | all poor mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **prevent** | past · do-support |  | Jack |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **start** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | eldest *= eld* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **regulate** | to-infinitive | eldest *= eld* *not said here* | the Gray Churl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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