---
title: Of Cona’n Mael mac Morna his brother, gruff as a badger, bearded lik… — Irish Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Of Cona’n Mael mac Morna his brother, gruff as a badger, bearded like a boar, bald as a crow, and with a tongue that could manage an insult where another man would not find even a stammer. Who acts: tongue, man. A sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III, with its dependency tr
---

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# Irish Fairy Tales, Chapter III, sentence 6

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Of Cona’n Mael mac Morna his brother, gruff as a badger, bearded like a boar, bald as a crow, and with a tongue that could manage an insult where another man would not find even a stammer.

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**Who acts:** tongue, man · **What happens:** beard, manage, not find · **To what, where:** insult, stammer

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This is a sentence of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tongue, man), 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:pg2892:16:6
# text = Of Cona’n Mael mac Morna his brother, gruff as a badger, bearded like a boar, bald as a crow, and with a tongue that could manage an insult where another man would not find even a stammer.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	Cona’n	Cona'n	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
3	Mael	Mael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	mac	Mac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
5	Morna	Morna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	gruff	gruff	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	badger	badger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	bearded	beard	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	boar	boar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	bald	bald	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
28	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	insult	insult	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	38	advmod	_	_
34	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	35	det	_	_
35	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
36	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
38	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl:relcl	_	_
39	even	even	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	stammer	stammer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beard** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | like a boar | vn pit-10.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **manage** | could | a tongue | a insult |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent insult=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **find** | would | another man | a stammer |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stammer=Topic |

<!-- .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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