---
title: “A boy,” he might think, as he stared on a staring horse, “a boy can… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “A boy,” he might think, as he stared on a staring horse, “a boy cannot wag his tail to keep the flies off,” and that lack may have saddened him. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 32

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“A boy,” he might think, as he stared on a staring horse, “a boy cannot wag his tail to keep the flies off,” and that lack may have saddened him.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** think, stare, not wag, keep off, sadden · **To what, where:** tail, flies, lack · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg2892:14:32
# text = “A boy,” he might think, as he stared on a staring horse, “a boy cannot wag his tail to keep the flies off,” and that lack may have saddened him.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	amod	_	_
16	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	wag	wag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	parataxis	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	det	_	_
35	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	aux	_	_
38	saddened	sadden	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
39	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | might | a boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **stare** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | on a staring horse | tree rules |
| 3 | **stare** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **wag** *in a quote* | can | a boy | boy's tail |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient |
| 5 | **keep off** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | a boy *not said here* | the flies |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fly=Theme |
| 6 | **sadden** | may · perfect · passive |  | that lack |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer he=Result |

<!-- .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:** «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Project Gutenberg book 2892 (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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- ← previous: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/14/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/14/33/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter I](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/14/)