---
title: He may have thought that a cow can snort and be dignified at the one… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: He may have thought that a cow can snort and be dignified at the one moment, and that timidity is comely in a sheep. Who acts: lack, cow, timidity. 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 33

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He may have thought that a cow can snort and be dignified at the one moment, and that timidity is comely in a sheep.

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**Who acts:** lack, cow, timidity · **What happens:** think, snort, dignify, be · **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 (lack, cow, timidity), 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:pg2892:14:33
# text = He may have thought that a cow can snort and be dignified at the one moment, and that timidity is comely in a sheep.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	snort	snort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	dignified	dignify	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	timidity	timidity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	comely	comely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | may · perfect | lack |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **snort** | can | a cow |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **dignify** | infinitive · passive | a cow *not said here* |  |  |  | moment |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | present | that timidity |  |  |  |  | in a sheep; comely *property* | 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:** «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 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/14/32/)
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