---
title: The sons of Morna had been fighting and intriguing for a long time t… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The sons of Morna had been fighting and intriguing for a long time to oust her husband, Uail, from the captaincy of the Fianna of Ireland, and they had ousted him at last by killing him. Who acts: sons. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter I, sentence 6

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The sons of Morna had been fighting and intriguing for a long time to oust her husband, Uail, from the captaincy of the Fianna of Ireland, and they had ousted him at last by killing him.

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**Who acts:** sons · **What happens:** fight, intrigue, oust, kill · **To what, where:** husband, captaincy, last

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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 (sons), 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:pg2892:14:6
# text = The sons of Morna had been fighting and intriguing for a long time to oust her husband, Uail, from the captaincy of the Fianna of Ireland, and they had ousted him at last by killing him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Morna	Morna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	aux	_	_
7	fighting	fight	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	intriguing	intrigue	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	oust	oust	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	Uail	Uail	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	captaincy	captaincy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	Fianna	Fianna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	ousted	oust	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	obl	_	_
37	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
38	killing	kill	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
39	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** | past · perfect · progressive | the sons of Morna |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **intrigue** | gerund | the sons of Morna *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **oust** | to-infinitive | the sons of Morna *not said here* | Morna's husband |  | the captaincy of the Fianna of Ireland |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent husband=Theme from captaincy=Source |
| 4 | **oust** | past · perfect | sons *= son* | husband |  | last |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **kill** | gerund | sons *= son* *not said here* | husband |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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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