---
title: There was no help for it, but to turn the chase for them; and he was… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no help for it, but to turn the chase for them; and he was the boy to split the stones. Who acts: help. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Battle of the Birds, sentence 218

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There was no help for it, but to turn the chase for them; and he was the boy to split the stones.

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**Who acts:** help · **What happens:** be, turn, split · **To what, where:** chase, boy, stones

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Battle of the Birds. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (help), 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:pg7885:31:218
# text = There was no help for it, but to turn the chase for them; and he was the boy to split the stones.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	split	split	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no help for rock |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **turn** | to-infinitive | no help for rock *not said here* | the chase |  |  |  | for miles *= mile* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent chase=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past | help | the boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **split** | to-infinitive | no help for rock *not said here* | the stones |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient |

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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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