---
title: The saving of an infant's life by a dog, and the mistaken slaughter… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The saving of an infant's life by a dog, and the mistaken slaughter of the dog, are not such an improbable combination as to make it impossible that the same event occurred in many places. Who acts: saving, same event. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XXI. Beth Gellert., with its
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, XXI. Beth Gellert., sentence 41

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The saving of an infant's life by a dog, and the mistaken slaughter of the dog, are not such an improbable combination as to make it impossible that the same event occurred in many places.

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**Who acts:** saving, same event · **What happens:** not be, make, occur, slaughter · **To what, where:** such improbable combination, legend, many places, dog

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, XXI. Beth Gellert.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (saving, same event), 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:pg7885:55:41
# text = The saving of an infant's life by a dog, and the mistaken slaughter of the dog, are not such an improbable combination as to make it impossible that the same event occurred in many places.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	saving	saving	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	infant	infant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	mistaken	mistaken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	slaughter	slaughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
22	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
23	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	improbable	improbable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	combination	combination	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	event	event	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
35	occurred	occur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | the saving of a infant's life by a dog and the mistaken slaughter of the dog | a such improbable combination |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | legend |  |  |  | impossible *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 3 | **occur** | past | the same event |  |  | many places |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in place=Location |
| 4 | **slaughter** |  |  | the dog |  |  |  |  | nom slaughter «act transitive»: of=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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